Throughout the spring of 2006, CPB will convene a task force of public television station leaders to consider the issue of digital rights. The goal of this group is threefold:
- To understand the opportunities that new digital technology and distribution makes possible and their implications for content rights
- To understand public television’s current risk positions and study new developments or trends in rights negotiation and rights management
- To articulate guiding principles that public broadcasting might follow in the digital marketplace
Our plan is to host a series of four or five meetings over the next six months and we are looking for part-time consulting support that would run from late February to early July.
The primary work of this consultant would be to prepare materials for the task force meetings to ensure that the group has the relevant information they need to make informed decisions. Ideally, the consultant would provide materials that would help the group answer the following questions:
- What new distribution platforms will be available for video content and what is the projected adoption rate for each?
- Who are the major players in the market today, in terms of creating, searching, and distributing content? What strategies are they pursuing?
- What initiatives are currently underway within public broadcasting to address issues of digital rights and what, if any, conclusions have been reached?
- What are the major trends in terms of copyright negotiation? How are the existing standards changing?
- What is the rights approach and strategy of other industry players (e.g., BBC, Discovery, Disney)?
- Who are some of the leading thinkers/deal developers in this area and what can we learn from them?
To answer these questions, we assume that the consultant will mine information from publicly available sources, conduct interviews with relevant industry specialists, and synthesize their findings in a format that can be easily used by the task force.
Qualifications
We are looking for an individual or group of individuals with the following qualifications:
- Strong project management experience
- Solid research/analytic skills
- Prior consulting experience
- Media experience a plus
Deliverables
For each meeting of the Task Force, the consultant will provide pre-reading materials that give an overview of the digital environment. Issues faced and strategies taken by other media companies will be outlined by the consultant. All background materials and notes compiled by the consultant will also be delivered to CPB.