TV Commissioning Specimen Agreement for Media Composers

As part of the Fair Score campaign, the MU and the Ivors Academy have created a specimen commissioning agreement for TV, accompanied by explanatory notes. 

This resource aims to help composers understand what a comprehensive commissioning agreement looks like, leading to more effective negotiations and fairer deals. As media composers work at all levels of the industry, the agreement will prove useful for those being commissioned by both small independent production companies and also global broadcasters.

Disclaimer

Any recommendation and information provided on this website is used by you at your own risk. Template agreements (whether labelled as 'specimen', 'standard' or otherwise) are strictly for information purposes only and not intended for use.

The content on our website is for general guidance only and should not be regarded as constituting legal or business advice or opinion.

Legal and business advice should be sought and taken in relation to the specific circumstances of each case and nothing appearing on this website is intended to be a substitute for obtaining specific legal and/or business advice from a competent professional.

A TV Commissioning Agreement is the legally binding document by which a Composer is commissioned by a TV production company (‘Company’) and agrees to write compositions and generally also record those compositions for a TV programme. The Company needs an agreement under which it acquires the synchronisation rights to use the composition/s and master/s (‘Works’) in its TV programme(s) (‘Programme’) for broadcast and other agreed exploitation, usually throughout the world. Such agreement normally licenses or assigns the rights on a non-exclusive basis but in some cases the rights may be licensed or assigned on an exclusive basis. If possible, the rights should be licensed, on a non-exclusive basis.

The Company will enter into agreements with financiers or banks and perhaps also with the broadcaster that is to transmit the Programme. Those agreements will influence the rights that the Company needs to take from the Composer and the obligations it will need to impose on the Composer. If unusual terms are required, the Composer should ask for a warranty that such terms have been imposed and are required under the relevant third party agreement signed by the Company.

See a brief explanation of the clauses in the Notes to the Specimen Agreement document.