Fight for the rights

摘要

Digital rights are this year's hot potato. There is a growing feeling among production companies that broadcasters are holding onto an indie's rights to the interactive version of a product without necessarily knowing what to do with them. What a setback it must be for enterprising independent production outfits trying to make money out of interactive television applications. A technology-savvy company gets the green light from a broadcaster to produce a 10× 30-minute light entertainment series, then works on priming an interactive version of the product for sale to other platforms. Until, that is, the commissioner and a rights-hungry lawyer from the channel's legal department point to the small print: the channel reserves the ight to hold on to the programme's interactive options. To add insult to injury, the indie discovers networks such as C4 re mysteriously housing interactive departments - which is pdd nC4's case as the publisher/broadcaster is not supposed to have n-house production teams.