Manager, Rights & Clearances

Job Description

OVERALL SUMMARY

Responsible for overseeing and managing contract administration related to rights and clearances of music and/or footage for all forms of HBO programming (including upcoming and catalogue original and licensed programming).

PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITIES
• Negotiate underlying rights clearances and provide guidance to producers, music supervisors, archival researchers, etc. on required rights, language and proper documentation along with HBO's requirements in connection with but not limited to work for hire agreements (e.g. composer agreements), sync/master agreements and archival (e.g. footage & stills) agreements.
• Vet programming to determine and ensure all music and/or footage contained in a program has been properly identified, licensed and summarized accurately (including notation of fair use materials) on delivered music and/or archive material cue sheets in order to defend against any potential copyright infringement claims or limitation of exhibition/distribution rights. Provide guidance and alternate music & archival solutions as needed.
• Review and approve all underlying rights contracts and process payment for in-house programs.
• Advise all appropriate internal colleagues (negotiators, legal, production executives, etc.) on status of underlying rights deliverables. Ensure proper payment has been processed to licensors; handle inquiries regarding payment issues; provide updates on program delivery status for final payment to producers.
• Advise on limitations of underlying rights in regard to promotion for a program. This may require additional clearance for in-context or out of context promotional rights. Retrieve and provide music and archival cue sheets and licenses to relevant creative, marketing and legal teams.
• Ensure all clearances are in compliance with business affairs/legal, financial and administrative requirements.
• Provide clearance estimates and upgrade underlying rights (e.g. music, footage, photos, stills, etc.) for select HBO catalog titles as requested by various internal departments.
• Maintain detailed records of clearances for requested HBO catalog titles; take appropriate follow up action (upgrading licenses, clearing/negotiating new rights and fees, etc.) as necessary in the event that underlying rights have expired, were not initially cleared due to budget constraints and/or to include ''new media''.
• Retrieve required deliverables from dropbox/scenechronize systems, manage the underlying rights files in Sharepoint (i.e. entry and/or removal of files), and entry into and updating of HBO's rights management database (the CUES database) for assigned programs/projects.

REQUIREMENTS
• Minimum 5 years' experience in business affairs, rights & clearances or licensing capacity in the television/music/entertainment industry
• Bachelor degree
• Strong negotiation and contract administration skills
• Ability to prioritize, juggle various tasks and work in a fast paced environment with minimal supervision
• Exceptional organizational, communication and interpersonal skills
• Ability to handle confidential information with a high level of discretion, sensitivity and professionalism
• Must be resourceful, extremely organized and a team player
• ​ Highly proficient in MS Outlook, Word, Excel

Jobcode: Reference SBJ-gqmyy9-18-117-142-128-42 in your application.