Lead, Distribution

The Distribution Lead is responsible for supporting our strategic plan with a focus on distribution, clip licensing, and the rights and clearances strategy regarding our archive for our original and third-party content. In addition, the position will assist in building out a data management system that supports our digital growth strategy and our evolving needs. This is a key position that looks to both support growth opportunities and to ensure our content is legally compliant and distribution-ready from day one.

Key Responsibilities

• Support our digital transformation initiative as the distribution team’s primary point of contact in building a framework for a future centralized Data Management System. In addition to ensuring that the system houses all necessary content and programming metadata, this role will ensure specific departmental needs are met including, rights status, expiration dates, usage limitations, and associated documents as well as tracking clip licensing, renewals, and presenting stations;
• Lead the rights and clearances strategy for all archival content – digital and broadcast;
• Evaluate and prioritize the use and monetization of assets, including the clip licensing strategy for all owned content;
• Maintain contracts with licensors, agencies, and rights holders for clip licensing;
• Partner closely with Legal, Rights & Clearances, Production, Post-Production, the Archive and Creative teams to ensure alignment across divisions and proactively flag or resolve potential exploitation issues and opportunities;
• Support Communications in building out marketing plan for all monetizable assets;
• Conduct training and build best practices for internal teams on distribution strategy and process including, clip licensing, renewals, royalties and presenting stations tracking;
• Stay up-to-date on industry trends and legal developments around copyright, fair use, and content licensing;
• Support the VP of Distribution in 3rd party partnerships and ROI analysis;
• Other relevant duties, as assigned.

The ideal candidate will have excellent written and verbal communication skills and will be highly organized, detail-oriented, and capable of managing multiple projects under tight deadlines. Additional qualifications include:

• Minimum 5 years of experience in distribution including of rights & clearances, preferably in television, film, and digital media;
• Knowledge and experience with rights management systems and/or databases;
• Demonstrated ability to manage people and process, including assigning work, reviewing output and mentoring team members;
• Solid understanding of copyright, licensing, and media law fundamentals;
• Experience clearing music, footage, stills, and talent for multi-platform distribution;
• Experience in clip licensing, establishment of rate carts and P and L management preferred.

This is a hybrid position. The WNET Group reserves the right to change and/or modify the hybrid schedule at its discretion.

The WNET Group

825 Eighth Avenue

New York, NY 10019-7435

www.wnet.org

It is the policy of WNET not to discriminate against any applicant for employment, or any employee because of age, color, sex, disability, national origin, race, religion, veteran status or any classification protected by law.

The WNET Group offers competitive salaries, excellent benefits, and a supportive working environment. Salary ranges are based on benchmarked nonprofit and industry related data provided by an outside consulting firm and are commensurate with skills and experience. The hiring salary range for this position is $80,000.00 - $93,000.00. Internal equity considerations will be reviewed before making a final offer.