the 5 Main Types of Indiefilm Distribution Media Rights - Redux
Distribution deals tend to confuse and confound many filmmakers. While there are a lot of complicated places that revenue can get lost, the essence of distribution deals is quite simple. They’re essentially just parsing of different media rights to various territories around the world. However given the Black Box that is the world film distribution, it’s often unclear how these rights get structured. So with that, I thought it prudent to share some of the structure of these deals.
Generally, these rights are broken up both by territory and by media type. This post is by type, there will be a future post based on territory. Generally, you’ll need a very skilled Producer's Rep or a sales agent to sell these territories for you. Click here to find out the difference between those two.
Type 1: Theatrical
This should be fairly clear. Theatrical rights are for the rights to release in theaters. Again, this is usually done by territory. Producer’s Reps may help with this domestically, but you will generally need a sales agent to sell it internationally if you want a hope at getting any significant number of screens. You’ll also need a genre film to get a screen guarantee from a distributor.
There are a few other types of exhibition that would fall under this right umbrella. Education rights with classroom or school screenings are an example, as are community screenings that would take place at a venue other than a traditional theater. This right is generally quite easy to negotiate a distributor taking non-exclusive rights so you can exploit it yourself.
Type 2: Physical Media (I.E. Home Video/DVD/Blu-Ray)
Believe it or not, there is still a market for DVD and Blu-ray. A lot of it is international, but there are still major retailers like Wal-Mart, target, and occasionally Redbox. These are as they sound, and are most often sold to a sales agent who then sells them to wholesalers. There are also outlets that can help you self-distribute those rights, Allied Vaugn will even let you sell through major online storefronts including all the major places you can think of. These deals are normally done through a process known as Manufacture On Demand, or MOD. In general, if you can only find a title online, it’s probably fulfilled through a MOD process.
Type 3. Television Rights
In General, these rights are broken out into 3 sub categories, PayTV, CableTV, and FreeTV.
PayTV
Pay TV is essentially Premium TV. These are places like HBO, Starz, Showtime, etc. These deals are generally exclusive, and will often also include a Subscription Video On Demand (SVOD) license. This is so that the network can include the offering on their associated SVOD platforms and extensions through third-party services like Hulu or Amazon Prime.
For instance, this allows HBO to put the content on HBOMAX or Discovery+. There’s an ongoing shakeup in the SVOD space, but that’s better left for the SVOD section.
CableTV
Cable TV is as it would sound. It’s any channel accessible via terrestrial cable or satellite television. These providers have been largely consolidated and tend to pay significantly less than payTV outlets for independent films, although there are some notable exceptions to this rule. These outlets are less likely to take SVOD rights, but they’re not at all uncommon to be included in such a license.
More commonly, these outlets will take Free Ad-Supported Streaming Television Services (FAST) or Ad-supported Video on Demand (AVOD) rights. More on that in the VOD section.
In general, these networks survive on ad revenue and carriage fees. Ad revenue should be clear if you’re reading this, but carriage fees are a fee paid to each individual channel from every single cable subscription which includes that channel in its bundle.
Free/Network TV
As it would sound, Network or Free TV is for the major “Over the air” networks. In The US, These would be ABC, NBC, Fox, and CBS. Most of the time these channels will be accessible solely with an antenna. These are almost entirely supported by ad revenue, but they do get carriage fees from cable providers as well.
Type 4: VOD
VOD stands for Video On Demand. There’s more than one type of Video on Demand Service, and each type has different providers. Here’s a very brief outline of what the different types of VOD are, and some samples as to the people who provide that service.
-TVOD
This stands for Transactional VOD. This has largely replaced Pay Per View television rights and is generally the most accessible form of VOD. There are many platforms for PPVOD. The most obvious would be iTunes, Google Play, Amazon/Createspace, and Vimeo On Demand. Amazon is far and away the largest TVOD platform in terms of gross sales. Most films I worked on had between 60 and 80% of total TVOD sales come in through Amazon.
-SVOD
Subscription Video on Demand – [SVOD] is for VOD platforms that run on a subscription basis. This would be platforms like Netflix, and Hulu Plus, as well as extensions of PayTV and regular TV channels as mentioned above.
-AVOD/FAST
Ad supported Video on Demand (AVOD) are apps where you can watch content on demand for free with ads. Platforms for this are Tubi, Vudu Free, or even YouTube. (you should check me out there, ;) ). Free Ad Supported Streaming Television Services (FAST) aren’t technically VOD, as they’re not on demand. These platforms continually stream channels of content similar to cable television but deliver over the internet as opposed to being bound by terrestril cable or satelite. The most notable example of this is PlutoTV.
Type 5 - EST & Ancillary
EST refers to Electronic Sell Through. This is functionally what used to be known as Pay Per View, and is generally when you rent a movie through a cable or satellite box. Comcast InDemand and driectTV are good examples. Ancillary rights rever to any method of watching content outside of the standard methods listed above. Airlines and Cruise Ships are common examples. Airlines and cruise ships tend to exist outside of territorial rights though. Hotels, academic, or library rights may be considered ancillary right types as well.
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