What Gives You the Rights?
At our senior staff meeting today we had a very interesting talk from James Lancaster, who is the 91Èȱ¬'s Head of Rights. He's the man trying to negotiate deals with rights-holders as the 91Èȱ¬ maps out the future of on-demand services, podcasting and giving viewers and listeners access to the 91Èȱ¬'s archive of programmes.
I'm afraid I bombarded him with questions because this in an area that interests me a lot. At the moment we can't podcast music programmes because we don't have the right to use commercial music, unlike on radio where the 91Èȱ¬ has negotiated a buy-out of music rights. Similarly, when it comes to comedy, the cost of repeating a programme is so expensive that it almost works out cheaper to commission a completely new programme.
Now this might be a good thing if you think the 91Èȱ¬ should only be in the business of broadcasting original programmes, but comedy does take time to be noticed and appreciated by an audience. Very often a comedy won't build a following until it has been repeated.
James explained the complexities of all of this, but agreed with me that, while the 91Èȱ¬ has to be seen to be treating artists and writers fairly, other organisations and individuals don't seem so worried about the legal niceties.
