CASE STUDY:

Helping Content Get to Air

The Assignment?

Review content for potential rights and clearances issues prior to publication, distribution, or broadcast across television programs, specials, documentaries, digital content, promotional campaigns & related projects, that content often included photographs, music, sports footage, social media content, third-party video clips, trademarks, names, likenesses, scripts, and other materials owned by someone else.

Most viewers never have to think about those things. . .

But someone has to.

The Work:

Attorney Elle conducted rights and clearances reviews and risk assessments for a variety of television, digital, and special programming projects.

The work involved reviewing proposed uses of third-party materials, researching ownership, assessing permissions and licensing requirements, and helping determine whether content could be used as proposed, required additional permissions, or should be avoided altogether.

Attorney Elle also reviewed pre-publication and pre-broadcast content, including unedited footage, and worked with production, editorial, standards, music, business, and other internal stakeholders to evaluate potential risks before content aired.

Where necessary, Attorney Elle drafted, reviewed, revised, and negotiated a variety of rights-related agreements and permissions documents, including:

  • Music Licenses;

  • Appearance Releases;

  • Photo Releases;

  • Non-Disclosure Agreements;

  • Content Permissions;

  • Production-Related Agreements; and

  • Other rights and clearances documentation.

In addition, Attorney Elle developed and facilitated rights and clearances trainings designed to help teams better understand ownership, permissions, licensing requirements, fair use considerations, and common issues that could delay or complicate production.

Recognizing recurring challenges associated with incomplete records and inconsistent documentation, Attorney Elle also proposed process improvements intended to create greater consistency in how rights-related information was collected, tracked, and maintained across teams.

The Result?

Potential rights, permissions, licensing, and intellectual property issues could be identified and addressed before publication, distribution, or broadcast, when solutions were typically easier, faster, and less disruptive to implement.

The Takeaway:

The audience only sees what made it into the final cut.

Rights & clearances professionals spend their time evaluating everything that might prevent it from getting to air.