Music Licensing - Home Video

Home Video

Licensing issues are often encountered when television shows or films using copyrighted music are released on Digital Versatile Disc (DVD) format.

When a song is cleared for usage on a TV show, historically to save money the clearance typically only applies to television airings of the show in question. Thus, when the show is considered for DVD distribution to the home video market, the rights to the song must be renegotiated in order for the song in question to be included on the DVD. Most producers/production companies now include the rights for DVDs or "all media now known or hereafter devised." This assures production companies of the right to re-release without incurring additional licensing fees.

If the process of clearing the rights to the song is prohibitively expensive for the home video distributor, or if clearance is refused by the copyright holders of the original song, the affected song is usually replaced with a similar (sound-alike) one, or the footage containing the copyrighted song is edited out. In a few cases, television shows which make extensive use of copyrighted music such that the cost of "after-market" licensing is high are withheld from release on DVD (two notable examples are The Wonder Years and Cold Case). Home video release of a number of television series and films have also been delayed and occasionally cancelled for this reason; for example, Sony Entertainment cancelled the planned October 2007 DVD release of Dark Skies for this reason but was eventually released on January 18, 2011 through Shout! Factory.