What's going on in Israel?

Local productions that are made for the various broadcasters in Israel fall under the blanket agreement signed between the society and the broadcasters.

The agreement does not cover Video, DVD, Cellular broadcasts, Internet and TV Video On Demand services (VOD) Pay Per View (PPV) services and other uses (resale for foreign territories or festivals).

Today production companies are re selling the productions to different contact providers such as:

1. The VOD service of the cable platform (HOT)
2. The PPV services on the cable and DBS platforms (HOT and
YES)
3. Third Generation platforms of the mobile operators.
4. Foreign Channels (The Israeli TV channel currently broadcasting to the US and soon to be on air in Europe) and other broadcasters worldwide.
5. The productions are being released on DVDs and Videos.
6. Productions are being aired in film festivals worldwide.

Who makes money?

The production companies and the TV companies are generating additional revenue from the sale of programming containing protected copyrights and the copyright owners do not make any additional revenue from this new revenue stream.

We need to make decisions:

1. Do we look at the new usage as a separate transaction? (i.e. the current blanket agreement for sync provided by the broadcasters does not cover the new usage)
2. How do we treat this new use? Can we let the societies license this use under a blanket agreement or do we license the use on an individual basis? NOTE: What are we allowed to do under the agreements we have with 3rd parties?
3. If the decision is to go with a separate fee licensed by the publishers we need to look at two options:
1. The license to be based on % from the income generated by the use (i.e. macro payment of the delivery fee or the air time spent on the broadcast (or both in the case of PODcast).
2. Flat fee for the use regardless of income generated by the use.
4. What about old licenses?

Many licenses that were given 15-20 years ago do not include many of the current uses (i.e. VOD, PPV, Pod cast, 3G casting).
Publishers who licensed uses for film and TV should look into their old paper work and track any additional uses that were not licensed and go to the production company and negotiate a fee for the additional use.

We need to move fast!

It is never easy to make decisions that effect the way we are used to doing business and our industry is known for its slow adjustments the new ways of the world. However this time we need to move faster as these streams of revenue are the most important ones for the future of our industry.

The future is now!

If you have any thoughts you want to share with me please feel free to write to: rgeffen@mmgmusic.com