Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ

The Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ today announced that it is making changes in the way that the Talent & Rights Negotiation Group handles rights acquisition and clearances for both new and archive content.

Not only will the changes enable the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ to acquire and clear rights more quickly and efficiently but will also realise savings to the business.

As a result of the planned ambitious and radical changes, approximately 90 posts – including both fixed term and continuing full-time contracts – could be closed over a period of three years ending in 2012.

The majority of the affected posts will be those presently undertaking secondary clearances for the re-use of Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ and third party content.

The Talent & Rights Negotiation Group will continue to sit at the heart of content creation, negotiating Talent Union and Collecting Society agreements, negotiating individual contributor and copyright contracts as well as clearing existing copyright content.

The plans capitalise on innovative thinking around the automation of historic, manual transactional processes covering areas such as images, stills, and music; around extensions to existing and new collective licensing arrangements, improving internal processes and the enhancement of current rights contracting and management systems.

Simon Hayward-Tapp, Head of the Talent & Rights Negotiation Group, commented: "These changes will streamline the processes for both rights clearances and procedures and help ensure that the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ meets its commitment to making its content available to audiences as efficiently and quickly as possible on every platform."

Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Press Office