The film and TV productions of Canada’s largest entertainment companies entail volumes of paperwork, and over the years it is easy for vital information to get lost in the shuffle. Being able to access business records instantly in the digital medium is crucial for these organizations to streamline their administrative processes and maximize asset exploitation. It is these advantages that Jaguar Consulting has brought to the likes of Alliance Atlantis Communications, Lions Gate Films, Cinar and Nelvana.

AAC was the first Canadian installation for Jaguar, a computer systems and service provider for contract administration and accounting for film, TV and character licensing. Headquartered in Pasadena, CA, Jaguar’s relationship with AAC began in 1994 and continues to this day with software updates every three to six months and weekly support phone calls, explains John Grubbs, Jaguar executive VP of business development. Each company has approached the firm with varying needs and so has adopted a different Jaguar module.

AAC was keen on a system addressing rights and restrictions deals and accurate ‘collision testing.’ For example, if a distributor has a potential sales contract to license a program to air in a foreign country, the system would allow them to access the show’s sales history. It would inform as to when a distributor’s program rights expire as well as provide a regional breakdown of rights if they are territorially divided with other distributors. It would also show whether or not rights for that particular area have already been sold.

The program can help keep a distributor’s sales team up to date on what productions in the company’s catalog are available to be licensed, as well as where and when. Users can access the information through Web queries, and a multiple-windows interface allows several licensing contracts to be on screen simultaneously. These systems also generate e-mail notifications of relevant events and reminders of upcoming time-sensitive tasks such as contract renewal.

Although it would be laborious for a company to input all this information in the system, once digitally available the data would greatly reduce future retrieval time, and, according to Grubbs, allow a company to get the most out of its assets.

‘It really helps them generate more revenue, because they know about the big hits but tend to lose track of the lesser titles,’ he says. ‘As time goes on, you’ve got a lot of contracts and the research gets complicated, so on the lesser titles, where there is not a lot of value, [sales] start not getting done. With a system like this, that doesn’t happen. You hit a button and find out you can pick up a few thousand extra dollars, so you do it. Otherwise you’d say, ‘Nah, it’s not worth it.”

These systems also reduce client expenditures and physical storage space. Without this kind of digital system, a company is likely to file a key piece of licensing information anywhere from three to a dozen times, creating the need for clerical staff. But with these programs, anybody, including those who may not have an exact understanding of the data, can access information simply and quickly through the queries. Also, the information remains consistent and is not subject to the varying contract structures and recording methods of different company regimes.

The systems also facilitate the access to licensing information for the overseas branches of film and TV companies, which are especially prevalent in this coproduction era.

Tracking royalties

The Jaguar system keeps tabs on the royalties a distributor is due from home video and pay-per-view revenue. Nelvana, with many spin-off products for its kids’ demographic, was particularly interested in the system’s capabilities in the merchandise licensing area. The program electronically downloads sales reports from merchandise manufacturers so that the rights holder can later check the accuracy of how much the merchandisers claim to owe based on their contractual agreement.

Jaguar continues to develop its relationship with Nelvana both in merchandise licensing and in an online system of approving products being manufactured for which it owns the rights. Meanwhile, rival animation company Cinar has been most interested in the contract administration area as well as rights and restrictions functions.

The installment of Jaguar’s system requires client training, so the company also maintains a New York office to service the East Coast. The company will roll out its latest software version, System 7 Universal Rights Management, to all its Canadian clients by year’s end. Grubbs says the new version has broader applications and would be highly configurable to companies with intellectual property rights concerns in other sectors of the business, such as networks and satellite operators.

Despite the fact that four Canadian majors have embraced digital asset management, Grubbs acknowledges the industry-wide adoption has been disappointingly slow in the past couple of years. He believes that the key is for the software companies, including competitors Documentum and North Plains Systems, to present a stronger business case to the entertainment industry. He foresees instant digital clearance of stock footage as the next widespread application, and is already in talks with MGM and NBC about adopting the process.

-www.jaguartc.com