麻豆约拍

Relying on advice from the 麻豆约拍

Please note that it is your company鈥檚 responsibility to ensure that the programme complies with all the legal requirements as set out in the General Terms. Nevertheless, the nature of your programme may mean that during production you come into contact with one (or more) of the 麻豆约拍鈥檚 internal legal or rights departments through your Commissioning Editor or Legal & Business Affairs Manager.

Please note that any guidance or opinion given by such internal departments is for the 麻豆约拍鈥檚 own purposes and should not be taken to constitute legal advice to your company. Any reliance that you may choose to place on any such opinion or guidance shall not, unless specifically agreed in writing by the 麻豆约拍, be deemed to waive your obligations or warranties under the terms of your Programme Production Agreement.

Maintaining legal privilege

Please also note that when legal advice is provided in connection with a programme, it is normally confidential and protected from having to be disclosed to third parties by what is known as 'legal advice privilege'. This 'privilege' is an important safeguard which may be unintentionally lost or waived in certain circumstances, including when the advice is communicated to someone who is not the lawyer鈥檚 鈥渃lient鈥�, unless certain measures are put in place.

In this case, the 鈥渃lient鈥� of the relevant legal department is the 麻豆约拍 and, in most cases, advice will be provided direct to the 麻豆约拍's commissioning executive or business affairs representative for the programme in question. However, it is recognised that, because of the nature of your commission from the 麻豆约拍, you may share a common interest in the subject matter of such advice and it may be appropriate in certain circumstances for that advice to be shared with you or occasionally provided to you direct, even though you are not the client.

It is important, therefore, for the 麻豆约拍 to ensure that there is no waiver of legal advice privilege as a result of this. Accordingly, please note that any such advice which is shared with you or provided directly to you is done without waiving your obligations or warranties as mentioned above (unless agreed otherwise in writing) and is done on the following terms:

1. That any such advice is protected from disclosure by common interest privilege; and

2. That any such advice is provided in strict confidence and may not be disclosed to any third parties without the express written consent of the 麻豆约拍.

Clearance

The 麻豆约拍 expects contributors to be contracted in accordance with normal practice for independent producers. Where the 麻豆约拍 has union or collective agreements for certain contributors (for example writers, actors, musicians, authors and publishers) then we will not oblige you to obtain pre-paid rights greater than the 麻豆约拍 does under these agreements. Summaries of the pre-paid rights and the repeat fee structures of those agreements are available on this website so that these can be reflected in your individual contributor agreements. 

Our agreements with you will make it clear which of the 麻豆约拍 uses need to be pre-paid within the licence fee and which of the 麻豆约拍 uses should be clearable subject to further payment. You should establish that it is possible to get these rights and what they cost, even if under the terms of your production agreement you are not required to pay for them straight away.

At the minimum for analogue networks, the 麻豆约拍 will require that two network transmissions and Primary New Media rights are pre-paid. Primary New Media rights comprise streaming, podcasts, thirty day audio on demand, thirty day new media rights and new media extract rights. Full definitions of these can be found in the General Terms.

Contributors

For certain types of contributor we will expect that all rights are pre-paid unless otherwise agreed 鈥� for example, presenters, panellists, interviewers, narrators, voiceovers, producers, directors, and locations or venues. It is the 麻豆约拍鈥檚 practice to obtain buy-outs from these type of contributors; we do recognise that extraordinary factors sometimes make this impossible.

On the agreements and contracts section of this site you will find forms and advice relating to release, consent, use of published works, and copies of agreements between the 麻豆约拍 and other bodies such as the Musicians' Union and Equity.

Specially commissioned music

The Producer shall acquire all necessary rights and make such payments for any specially composed music to ensure that no use fees, repeat fees or residuals shall be payable.

If you are engaging a composer to write original music for your programme, then 麻豆约拍 has some straightforward precedents you may use 鈥� please email your Business Affairs contact. There are two main ways to hire a composer.

One is to contract them to deliver a finished musical soundtrack which will be 鈥渆lectronically realised鈥�, that is performed by the composer themselves by electronic means not by live musicians. The other is to deliver the composition which you will then arrange to have performed by musicians (and engage the musicians). The first is the cheapest and most common.

In the first case you will be contracting the composer to deliver a sound recording, which is a piece of music copyright in its own right, in the second they will be delivering the music, ie the notes on the page. In both cases 麻豆约拍 typically takes a licence to use the music in the programme in perpetuity via all media, subject to royalties or payments as may be set by the Music Copyright Protection Society or the Performing Rights Society 鈥� so all royalties and transmission fees are handled by them, rather than 麻豆约拍.

Archive clearances

We also expect archive material to be pre-paid for unlimited transmissions over the 麻豆约拍鈥檚 licence period (Clause 6.2 of the General Terms). If you anticipate that there are issues that will make a buy-out difficult in these cases, then let us know as soon as possible, ideally when making the proposal on Proteus. We will then be able to take this into account in the commissioning and budgeting process.

Using clips of 麻豆约拍 programmes

If you want to use a clip in your programme taken from another 麻豆约拍 programme (made by the 麻豆约拍 or commissioned from another indie) you are entitled to do so as set out in the General Terms but please be aware that you will need to clear the underlying rights in the clip.

The principal limitation is that any commercial use of the Programme including the 麻豆约拍 archive clip is subject to negotiation with the 麻豆约拍 of a reasonable commercial rate for its use.

It is easy to be confused between the transmissions the 麻豆约拍 obtains pre-paid from you as the independent, and the transmissions you obtain pre-paid from contributors. The 麻豆约拍 obtains from you the Tier A and Tier B packages (see General Terms) and pays repeat fees only when these are exhausted. But we acknowledge that you may have obtained 2 network transmissions from contributors and, therefore, we will be paying repeat fees to contributors where none are yet due to you. We are not expecting you to obtain the Tier A and Tier B packages pre-paid from contributors where the 麻豆约拍鈥檚 in-house agreements provide for 2 transmissions and Primary New Media rights only to be pre-paid.

If you have any queries in relation to clearances please refer in the first instance to Business Affairs.

Contributors and third parties

You will need to enter into a number of contracts with a variety of contributors/third parties depending on the needs of your production. If you have any questions regarding third party contracts, or if you think 麻豆约拍 Business Affairs can help in any way during the production period, please contact them as early on as possible. The 麻豆约拍 has some standard forms for certain contributors (musicians, interviewees, presenters, composers) that can be e-mailed to you if you wish.

Unless otherwise stated you need to contract all contributors for your programme in accordance with the General Terms. As your contributor contracts are expected to meet these requirements, the 麻豆约拍 does not need to specifically approve each contract (unless it is a Key Agreement 鈥� see below). Please note though, that any variation to the provisions set out in the General or Special Terms could only be made with 麻豆约拍 consent.

The only exception to this is where the 麻豆约拍 has indicated in the Commissioning Specification that it requires prior approval of any 鈥淜ey Agreements鈥� (as distinct from approving the identity of the person). For these, you would need to secure 麻豆约拍 consent to the proposed agreement terms and/or fee before signing them.

In giving its approval, the 麻豆约拍 will only be commenting on issues affecting the 麻豆约拍 (for example additional payments such as repeats and entitlements to net, compliance with 麻豆约拍 policies, and any reserved rights that may undermine the General Terms) and not on any other aspects that may affect you, but not the 麻豆约拍.

Please note that approval of a draft agreement by Business Affairs does not imply approval of any proposed credit (such approval is an editorial matter). Please let the 麻豆约拍 have an early draft of these agreements, so that any 麻豆约拍 comments can be incorporated at the early stage of negotiations.

It remains your responsibility to obtain independent legal advice with regard to all other aspects of your proposed third party agreements and their suitability with regard to the overall terms of the Programme Production Agreement between your company and the 麻豆约拍, and your company鈥檚 requirements generally.

Working with children

As producer you have a responsibility to safeguard the welfare of children and young people. To do so you need to ensure you are compliant with the relevant legislation and your obligations when involving children in a programme.

In terms of child production policies the 麻豆约拍 expects all companies who work with children to work to the 麻豆约拍's Child Protection Policy or a company policy of similar standard. You will be expected to familiarise yourself with the relevant laws when working with children for example the Children and Young Persons Act 1963 and The Children (Performances) Regulations 1968 (as amended). Also Section 9 of the 麻豆约拍鈥檚 Editorial Guidelines and all relevant OFCOM codes and guidance.

You can find the 麻豆约拍 guide to working with children on the 麻豆约拍 Delivery site.

The use of children in a programme should be discussed with the commissioning editor at an early stage.

If you have any queries in relation to contributor fees, please refer in the first instance to Business Affairs.