In 1968, the Detroit Tigers won the World Series and I turned 5. My grandfather and I watched every game on a black and white TV with rabbit ears. Whenever the picture got fuzzy, my grandpa would say “Jackie, go hang on to that antenna,” and like magic, I fixed the picture.

In the 55+ years since, I’ve watched a lot of TV. In 1984, the last time my beloved Tigers won the World Series, I became a cable subscriber. No need to hang on to the antenna because cable gave us all a pretty good picture. In 2000, when I moved out to the country, and my house had no cable provider, I signed up for DirecTV. When analog TV gave way to digital television, I brought home an HDTV. When it became clear TV was headed over-the-top of the Internet, I started Zeam Media, then called Syncbak, to take it there. That was 2009.

Today Zeam Media takes 27 million hours of local broadcasts and readies them for streaming on apps like Paramount+, Fubo, Hulu, and countless other destinations. I doubt any other streaming platform does more live local than us. adSync, our ad serving platform, now dynamically inserts billions of ads into live and on-demand streams. Zeam, the product we launched with a Super Bowl commercial starring John Stamos, is tool that is going to help me figure the future out.

Everything starts with local. Think about it. At this moment you are somewhere, from somewhere, going somewhere, and stuff is happening somewhere. All of that is local. All of it. So, Zeam is going to do local better than anyone else, and we are going to put ourselves squarely in the middle of battle for eyeballs. We’re not going to compete with the big binge platforms. We’re going to support them by giving their subscribers a place to hang out. Zeam.

Anyone my age has likely seen around 3.5 million commercials since that ’68 World Series. For decades most of us saw those commercials 

 paid a subscription to boot. With the advent of cord-cutting, the rise of subscription-binge apps like Netflix, and F.A.S.T channels, cable is rapidly dying, and the race is on for control of eyeballs.

There is no question that new, more viewer-friendly, business models will emerge. They must. In fact, I’d go so far as to say there is a whole new paradigm coming, one where we, you and me, might get paid to watch TV. Wait. What? Yeah, paid to watch TV. I know what you are thinking. Jack is nuts. Maybe, but that has always been the case.

Let me try to make a case that someday we will get paid to watch TV -

I drive Ford trucks and only Ford Trucks.

I am in my seventh decade of playing ice hockey, and I plan to lace them up until the end.

Every chance I get, I head to my place in Michigan’s upper peninsula to hang out.

I fly United Airlines and stay almost exclusively in Marriott hotels when I travel. If nothing else, I am loyal.

In the next twelve months I will stream enough content to see at least 60,000 15 - 30 second ad spots. At a $50/CPM (the unit used to determine ad rates), I could generate nearly ~$3,000 in annual advertising 

 off my viewing. That’s a lot, right? It is. See why the race is on for eyeballs? Trillions of dollars are up for grabs…

The winners will be the players who figure it out by forging a bond between viewers, content creators, and advertisers. That is what I spend my time on 24/7/365. 

Back to my $3,000. Trust will be key. I shared what could be considered personal data above. Could identity thieves reap a bounty from knowing I drive Ford trucks, play hockey, hide out in the U.P., fly United, and stay in Marriotts? I doubt it. Might others, people like you, actively share that type of data in a more proactive way? I think so. That is where trust comes in. You have got to see the benefit first. Will advertisers pay more to reach you knowing those details? Yes.

And what if, because we know more about viewers, our CPMs got up to $100? That’d be $6,000 per year per viewer based simply on viewing. I’d submit, that is the future of streaming. Each of us will have something akin to DNA that tells advertisers about us.

Today, it’s my grandkids and me. I have got a bunch. We watch the Chicago Bears together, often via streaming. So, what happens in the future, when those kids become parents, or even grandparents? It’ll all be streaming, or maybe something else, maybe something even more efficient than streaming. And, since advertising has always fueled the Internet, we can safely assume my grandkids will continue to see ads. Why? Because no matter how much subscription binge takes over, advertisers will still need to reach viewers. Free, ad-supported TV is going to be a big deal. A bigger deal than it is even today.

Back to getting paid. My grandson Henry is going to be the first in the family to scale Mt. Everest, so a company like outdoor retailer REI, may elect to buy every 10th ad he sees. And, at some point, REI may even send Henry a message that says, “Henry, come on into our closest store, we’ve got $100 waiting for you.” Maybe whatever platform he is streaming on carves out 10% of Henry’s ad dollars and converts them to twice as much value with a retailer. Money doesn’t necessarily change hands, but the streamer and the advertiser share, in a positive way, the viewer. Henry wins. REI wins. The streamer wins. Hmmm.

So, it may not be cash, but it will feel like it. The reward for sharing a little bit about yourself, and watching, is that you get paid to watch TV.

Imagine that. Someday you’ll get paid to watch TV.

Someday you’ll get paid to watch TV

During my time at the University of Iowa, I created a software package initially designed to track my health and fitness journey. Launched in 1990 as RunningCounts, it gained recognition as world-class runners used it to prepare for the 1992 Olympic games in Barcelona.

In 1996, I took on a pivotal role at Decisionmark, transforming it with the creation of Geneva—an Internet-based technology, inadvertently pioneering what is now known as geo-fencing. Geneva's success led to TitanTV.com, the first-ever web-based EPG/DVR, and antennaweb.org, aiding millions in the transition from analog to digital television.

I founded Syncbak in 2009, dedicating a year to refine technology, secure patents, and engage with broadcasters. A decade later, as ZeamMedia, we continue to lead the industry in effective OTT and advertising solutions, powered by innovation and proprietary technology, creating unprecedented connections in the new media landscape for broadcasters, advertisers, creators, and viewers.


A decades-long innovator in broadcast technology

Jack Perry

My first encounter with technology was a TS1000 computer, and, unsure of its capabilities, I playfully typed in ‘Hello, Hal’, only to find Hal silent on the other end.