Getting Yyoma legally ready to launch a new streaming service

An innovative new video streaming platform from tech start-up Yyoma will provide educational and entertaining content for kids from black and ethnic minority (BAME) communities. Aimed at pre-school children aged three and under, the platform sets out to deliver new and original material designed to accelerate development at a time when children need it most. 

Yyoma has four main aims:

• building kids’ self-esteem and improving social outcomes
• helping children from any heritage integrate and connect with people from other backgrounds
• providing parents with educational resources which are even more vital during lockdown
• offering a platform to creators from BAME communities to share content

Yyoma's creators say the new product is born out of a vacuum which exists in educational material for kids from BAME backgrounds. Yyoma looks to fill it, via a Netflix-style platform, where content will be accessible via a monthly subscription model which also includes regular updates and new features for users. The fun videos will help pre-school children accelerate their learning by transforming screen time into learning time.

Harper James Solicitors have been working with the team at Yyoma to ensure the platform has all the correct legal documents it needs in place ahead of launch. This includes providing guidance on licensing and royalty agreements, subscription terms and their privacy policy.

Co-founder Dean Bryan said: 'Harper James has been invaluable. They drafted the relevant agreements and gave us sound legal advice in an area that we did not have prior experience in. As a start-up, having advice and feedback from an organisation that specialises in early-stage enterprises was instrumental in us having the confidence to push forward with our product.'

Ed Kilner, an IP specialist with Harper James Solicitors, has been part of the team advising Yyoma. He said: 'It has been a pleasure to work with the team at Yyoma who are bringing such an innovative and important product into the lives of so many children. We look forward to working with them as the platform grows in the future.'

Yyoma has been created by a team of four people and in the space of just ten weeks, they’ve curated 150 pieces of content, all licensed to appear on a platform which will eventually host thousands of items of educational material. A pre-beta version of the web platform and iOS app is currently available, and an Android app will follow.