Creating and Managing a Complex TV Content Rights Database

Content owners, licensing agents, and broadcasters have many new types of content and distribution options that require licensing and royalty payments. Ben Clasper from Counterpoint explained to me at the NAB show that this results in more complicated needs for rights and royalty accounting software. Both content owners and broadcasters want to maximize the exploitation of their intellectual property and broadcast options. They want to minimize revenue loss and expense leakage while keeping back office system costs at reasonable levels.
It is helpful to have a system that can manage content licensing for the complete life cycle of a contract. Content licensing has different needs based on industry areas and there are many options such as multi-property and bundled SKUs that need to be setup and managed.
A core need for a content rights management system is a robust calculation engine. It should include analytical tools that ensure that royalty calculations are correct. It should allow for a wide range of licensing contract terms including use authorizations, advances, royalty tiers, payment schedules.