Business Law
Business Law News 2019, ISSUE 1
Content
- Bln Editorial Board: Letter from the Editor
- Business Law News Editorial Team
- Business Law News Table of Contents
- Executive Committee: Message from the Chair
- Executive Committee of the Business Law Section 2018-2019
- Standing Committee Officers of the Business Law Section 2018-2019
- The Architecture of Compromise: Constructing the Music Modernization Act
- The Dos and Don'ts of Workplace Investigations for Sports Industry Employers
- The Upright Citizens Brigade's Guide To Improv In Litigation
- What's in a Game?
- Who Is Looking Out For Student-Athletes When Schools Purchase Disability Insurance For Them: a Case Study
- Distribution Deals: License, Monetize, Repeat
Distribution Deals: License, Monetize, Repeat
Jeremy M. Evans
Jeremy M. Evans is the Founder & Managing Attorney at California Sports Lawyer®, representing entertainment, media, and sports clientele. Evans is an award-winning attorney and community leader based in Los Angeles. He can be reached at Jeremy@CSLlegal.com.
As a general matter, content creators would like to sell rights to distribute their content to multiple parties on multiple platforms, so as to increase revenue from various sales and transactions. On the other side of the negotiation table, licensees, distributors, and the like ("distributors") would prefer to own, license, or control more content for a lesser price, with an opt-out when the content is no longer selling (e.g., fewer eyes viewing content). These principles hold true for both live sports and entertainment content.
The balance between creator and distributor is decided in the negotiation, and the result is a distribution deal. Before we break down the essential elements of a distribution deal for entertainment, media, and sports content, we need to answer two questions: First, what is a distribution right? Second, what is a distribution deal?