Vice President, Business and Legal Affairs, BET

This is a Full Time Job

BET Networks, a subsidiary of ViacomCBS Inc. (NASDAQ: VIA, VIA.B), is the nation's leading provider of quality entertainment, music, news, and public affairs television programming for the African-American audience. The primary BET channel reaches more than 90 million households and can be seen in the United States, Canada, the Caribbean, the United Kingdom, and sub-Saharan Africa. BET is the dominant African-American consumer brand with a diverse group of business extensions: BET.com, a leading Internet destination for Black entertainment, music, culture and news; BET HER, a 24-hour entertainment network targeting the African-American Woman; BET Music Networks - BET Jams, BET Soul and BET Gospel; BET Home Entertainment; BET Live, BET's growing festival business; BET Mobile, which provides ringtones, games and video content for wireless devices; and BET International, which operates BET around the globe.

Overview and Responsibilities

Love unscripted TV? We do, too! Our new Vice President, BALA, for ViacomCBS Media Networks will provide day-to-day business and legal affairs services for this group in Hollywood, on primarily BET Networks- branded programming, with a focus on unscripted development and production! Come be our operational leader on high-level deals and projects and handle a heavy volume of matters relating to both “in-house” and third party productions.

Our BALA department handles unscripted programming, news programming, tent-poles and works closely with the networks’ Management teams as well as many other departments (including Programming, Talent, Publicity, Music & Media Licensing, Labor & Employment, Risk Management, Pre-Broadcast Content Review, Intellectual Property & Litigation and Accounting/Finance).
• Primary duties will include structuring, drafting and negotiating complex agreements (e.g., rights acquisition, producer, writer, production services, and talent agreements, format licenses, venue and location releases, etc.)
• Performing and/or supervising day-to-day legal production work for presentations, pilots, specials and series, and advising and consulting with clients and outside production companies regarding production-related legal matters (including guild, union and other employment law issues)
• Reviewing and approving legal contracts for execution by management
• Participating in and contributing to strategic deal discussions and researching issues; providing complex risk assessment for production-related matters; advising and communicating with various other departments within Viacom Media Networks regarding exploitation of original programming across all media platforms
• Counseling the client groups on a wide variety of other legal matters, including guild/union and labor issues, IP rights, off-channel marketing and promotions, insurance, product integrations, online and music issues

Basic Qualifications

• Ideal candidate should be a member of the California Bar(s) with at least 10 years plus of transferable experience (ideally with a minimum of 8 years of business/legal affairs experience in a network, studio, entertainment law firm or production company environment)
• Comprehensive working knowledge of television industry agreements, guild and union regulations (WGA, DGA and SAG-AFTRA), contract law and intellectual property rights (as applicable to the entertainment industry) is required, along with a proven capability for legal research, analysis and reasoning
• Excellent drafting, negotiation, communication (written and verbal), interpersonal, organizational and computer skills are also a must

Additional Qualifications

• Proficiency in entertainment industry customs and practices and proven ability to successfully negotiate and interact with agents, managers and outside attorneys
• Experience working on unscripted production deals is a definite plus
• Build strong internal client relationships, effectively advise senior-level executives under conditions of uncertainty, high pressure and/or high-risk and generate strong client satisfaction through critical thinking and firm decision-making
• Innate ability to multi-task under pressure, manage a varied, high-volume workload efficiently and smoothly and operate independently with minimal supervision
• Analyze fact patterns and devise creative solutions that allow network executives to execute their creative vision in compliance with corporate policies and guidelines while minimizing overall legal and business risk
• May be required to supervise and/or train junior executives, contract managers and/or legal assistants so management experience a definite plus
• Passion for BET brand and unscripted TV is strongly preferred

We work as a team in a highly collaborative manner. You should have a cooperative, positive and hardworking spirit*

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