RHEI says creators are making big money by selling their content to AI companies

This past January, RHEI–the Vancouver-based tech company formerly known as BBTV—launched RHEI Data Pro, a data monetization platform that lets creators and media companies choose to license their content catalogs to companies building LLMs. At the time, RHEI said its platform could help creators earn up to $100,000 for every 1,000 hours of content they produce and license.

Pre-launch, RHEI Data Pro sealed $35 million worth of deals with “trillion-dollar technology businesses,” according to CEO Shahrzad Rafati. Now, four months later, it’s added an additional $20 million in deals, and says 80% of creators and media businesses licensing their content through RHEI Data Pro have seen initial payouts that exceed 75% of their average monthly revenue from platforms like YouTube. Some of these payouts are in the six and seven figures.

RHEI says Data Pro currently has “more than 6 petabytes of multilingual and multi-vertical audio-visual content, positioning it among the largest databases of its kind globally.”

It’s clear why those “trillion-dollar technology businesses” are willing to sign tens of millions of dollars’ worth of deals to access that database: With increased scrutiny over where they get the data they use to train LLMs–and whether that data is obtained with creators’ consent–they’re seeking aboveboard troves of UGC to develop their models beyond initial internet scrapes. (Again, RHEI hasn’t confirmed which businesses have partnered with Data Pro, but only a handful in the world are considered trillion-dollar, among them Amazon, Microsoft, YouTube’s parent Alphabet, Apple, Meta, and Tesla.)

One creator using RHEI Data Pro is Otavio Agria, the creator behind the Brancoala family of channels with 13 million subscribers and ~84 million monthly views.

“What stood out to me most was the ability to turn my video library into a new source of revenue, with clear rights and transparency in how it’s being used by AI, something that’s becoming increasingly important for anyone working with digital content,” Agria said. “I already used AI in my daily life, both professionally and personally, so it made a lot of sense to support a platform that promotes ethical and mindful use of this technology while valuing content creators.”

In a statement, Rafati said she sees RHEI Data Pro’s early creator payouts as “a powerful testament to the speed and scale of our model.”

“We’ve been building AI solutions for the creator economy and media companies, and while it’s exciting to see the revenue that we’re able to drive for them through our latest solution with RHEI Data Pro, we’re even more excited about how our technologies continue to help drive content output, audience creation, and monetization at a scale that has never been achievable before,” she added. “We’re at the forefront of this Augmented Creativity Era, and with every partnership, we’re simultaneously putting creators and media companies at the center of innovation and shaping a more prosperous future for AI development.”

RHEI is a Tubefilter partner.