Vice President of Business Affairs

This is a Full Time Job

Overview

Hearst Media Production Group (HMPG) is seeking a VP, Business Affairs to join our team. This position will primarily focus on compliance with FCC-mandated rules for Educational/Informational (E/I) television production and distribution and oversight of rights, clearances, and general production documentation in addition to business issues surrounding HMPG's General Market entertainment and news and information programming. Works with management to maintain HMPG brand integrity of all current series and handles day-to-day business affairs for development and production. The VP, Business Affairs will also strategize with management and outside counsel on business and intellectual property related issues, and draft, review and execute various short-form business and production documents. As such, a legal background and/or related experience in the media and/or entertainment industry is required.

The position reports to the EVP, General Manager (E/I) and also engages with the EVP, General Manager (Entertainment) and Chief Financial Officer and President of HMPG.

The position is on-site five (5) days at our Hearst offices located in Charlotte, NC.

Responsibilities

• Work with management, post-production, regulatory counsel, and network teams to ensure content compliance with FCC Educational/Informational rules for linear broadcast and FTC, COPPA, and state-level privacy rules for digital platforms.
• Manage a staff of four in the below categories.
• Oversee and support Standards and Practices team responsible for content review, with an emphasis on compliance with E/I regulations, legal clearance, and appropriate execution of branded content.
• Coordinate network communications and oversee team responsible for scheduling, formatting, and fulfilment of physical and paper deliverables for multiple weekly network TV series including titles and descriptions, music cue sheets, translations, audio description, and quarterly FCC-filings.
• Oversee rights management efforts, including terms, rights, participations, holdbacks, territories, etc. as well as copyright registration with the US Copyright Office.
• Work with sales, production, post, and network partners to ensure HMPG brand integrity and industry standards.
• Review, negotiate, and draft short-form business, production, and vendor documents including location, third-party acquired materials, and appearance releases, production services agreements, permits, letters of intent, NDAs, etc. in coordination with the production management team, rights & clearances team, and in-house and external counsel.
• Engage in logistics and issues surrounding program sponsorships, schedules, content and contractual obligations.
• Work with management to cultivate relationships with network, production, and distribution partners.
• Collaborate with internal and external counsel when necessary.

Experience

• Minimum of 10 years of experience working in television business affairs department, legal affairs department and/or entertainment law firm.

Qualifications

• Familiarity with FCC, FTC, and COPPA (and related online privacy) regulations.
• Familiarity with copyright and trademark laws and regulations, with particular understanding of the elements and analysis of nominative use of trademark.
• Previous experience in performing legal and/or clearance review of episodic or long form audio/visual content.
• Experience with market-leading enterprise rights management systems.
• Skilled at maintaining positive relationships with showrunners and sales executives while enforcing standards and regulatory decisions.
• Ability to make judgement calls on sensitive topics, removing personal opinions from decision-making process.
• Proven ability to manage a high volume of projects with competing deadlines.
• Excellent organization and time management skills.
• Superior written and oral communication skills.
• Detail-oriented with strong analytical capabilities and judgement.
• Familiarity with music rights and cue sheets, production insurance, and union issues a plus.
• Working knowledge of project management software, preferably Monday.com.

Education

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Business, Media, or other related field required.
• Law degree (J.D. or LLM) required.
• Military training from Defense Information School (DINFOS) with related experience will be considered.

Diversity Statement

At Hearst Television we tell stories every day. Stories about people of all cultures, backgrounds, perspectives, and identities. That's why, behind the scenes, we believe in being an organization as diverse and varied as the audience we reach, ensuring that the content we create is more compassionate, and more representative of the communities we serve.