A drama is sold to a streamer in thirty countries, and the deal needs a full list of every piece of music and archive in all eight episodes. One song in episode three was only cleared for broadcast in one country. The rights and clearances manager has a week to renegotiate it or find a replacement. The rights and clearances manager is the person who makes sure everything in a programme is allowed to be there.
What a rights and clearances manager does
Almost every programme uses material that belongs to someone else, such as a song on a car radio, a clip of old news footage, a painting on a wall or a brand name on a T-shirt. To use them, the production needs a licence (written permission, usually for a fee) from the owner. The rights and clearances manager finds out who owns what, asks for permission, negotiates the price and terms, and keeps the paperwork.
They work with the researcher and archive producers who find the material, with the music supervisor on songs, and with the post-production supervisor to make sure nothing uncleared stays in the final cut. At the end they produce the music cue sheet and clearance logs that are part of delivery. At a broadcaster the same role also keeps track of the rights the broadcaster itself has bought, so it knows how often and where a programme may be shown.
Responsibilities
- Identify everything in a programme that needs permission
- Find rights owners and request licences for music, archive and images
- Negotiate fees, territories, media and licence periods
- Advise on what can be shown without permission and what cannot
- Keep a clearance log and the signed paperwork for each item
- Prepare music cue sheets and clearance reports for delivery
- Track licence expiry dates and what a programme may still be used for
How the role touches the budget
Directly, through the clearance lines in the budget. Music and archive are often budgeted as a single allowance, and the rights manager has to make the licences fit. The price of a licence depends on how much is used, for how long, and where and how the programme is shown. A wider licence costs more now but avoids paying again when the programme is sold abroad. Late changes are expensive, so an early, realistic clearance budget saves money in post-production.
How people get into the role
Many start as a clearance assistant or in archive research, and some come from a legal or music publishing background. Knowledge of copyright is learned on the job, often with help from the production lawyer or business affairs manager. Patience and a careful eye for paperwork matter more than a formal qualification.
At a production company
At a production company the role usually sits in business affairs and works across all productions. On a single film the same work may be done by a freelance clearances coordinator during post-production.