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There is a bit of confusion over Crufts television coverage so I’ll do my best to explain.
The Kennel Club hold the commercial rights to Crufts. As far as television is concerned these rights can be exploited in two ways. The simplest way is to sell the rights to cover the event to a traditional broadcaster. They might choose to produce the programming themselves or employ an independent production company to do it for them. Either way the law governing broadcasting in this country would mean that the KC would not be able interfere in their editorial independence. This was the main route to air for coverage of Crufts until last year when, after a dispute over the BBC's refusal to show pictures of certain breeds, the KC/BBC contract was dissolved.
This left the KC with the second option for exploiting its TV rights i.e, employ a production company itself. This gives the KC editorial control but no platform to show the programming. One possible way around this is to produce a DVD but that does not meet the immediate demand. The only way to get the coverage out there quickly is to go down a non-traditional distribution route such as the internet. This was the route taken by the KC last year when it employed Sunset+Vine to produce the internet coverage. It chose to give free live streaming of Crufts through the KC website but charged for the catch up and hightlights package.
So far so good, now we come to 2010. This year had both methods going on at the same time. We also had the complication of Sunset+Vine producing the coverage for both routes to air. The internet coverage was editorially controlled by the KC (although I wouldn't imaginethat there was any day to day interference in what was shown) but the More4 coverage was editorially controlled by Channel 4.
Channel 4 could not use its internet catch up service (4oD) for Crufts because the KC had effectively employed Sunset+Vine to provide that service through KC's own website - at a cost of £9.99.
Breed clubs and other groups like BHDB can’t make and sell their own coverage without KC agreement because they don’t have the commercial rights to it!
– Still confused? Don’t call me, just take an aspirin!!
Posted at 10:44 on 17 Mar 2010 by
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