Connections

By Richard Whittington, SVP, Media and Entertainment, SAP; Phil Bird, Head of Sales, Rights and Royalties, EMEA, Vistex –

The volume and complexity of media revenue streams and business models are unquestionably game-changing – but it’s not the world for which legacy systems were built.

With the explosion of streaming providers and content consumption channels, the potential for generating revenue has never been more diverse and sophisticated. Media companies and their content distributors are taking on herculean efforts to manage this change, but a more advanced approach is required to give artists their fair share of payments and residuals.

However, traditional reliance on legacy systems often falls short in the flexibility needed to manage current requirements for rights and royalty management. Content rights are often spread out across different organizations driven by distribution channels – all with distinct terms and agreements and their own view into what’s owed and settled.

What’s needed is an efficient, well-designed, and balanced approach to rights and royalty management that addresses the critical levers through which the entire ecosystem generates ROI for their creativity and hard work.

A unified core of rights and royalty intelligence and clarity

When it comes to digitalizing rights and royalty management, nothing beats the ability to capture data and analyze it all in real time. A single point of rights and royalty data truth gives distributors a transparent view across the content delivery process and the flexibility to respond to consumer demand.

They can make decisions with information that is well-defined and accessible, promote content in ways that maximize the profitability of their investments and optimize the effectiveness of their supply chain.

Rights and royalty management solutions, such as SAP S/4HANA for rights and royalty management by Vistex, are designed to deliver those benefits by slimming down the complex system of multiple sources down to just one enterprise system.

Whether negotiating deals with third-party creators, pushing content to broadcasting services, or running streaming services, distributors can get the business insight and operational support they need all under one user interface – all in one end-to-end tool.

They can create legal-approved contracts; acquire rights; move content to production; and trigger royalty payments based on consumption, events, or a specific schedule.

Rights and royalty management grow smarter every day

This digital approach to rights and royalty management not only gives distributors that insight to manage the rights lifecycle of content, but also gain the confidence that they have the rights to keep offering and exploiting it to an audience that wants it. More importantly, they can stay in good standing with highly sought-after creators, licensors, and publishers by fulfilling their financial and legal obligations.

Find out how SAP S4/HANA for rights and royalty management by Vistex helps media and entertainment players build confidence and trust worldwide across all entertainment categories.