Exploring the OTV Distribution Contract

You are still free to upload, screen, distribute, or sell it to any other entity.

Our contract will not expire until one of the parties [signing artist and OTV] requests for a termination of contract.

• Why? We used to offer 3-year contracts, but this burdens our non-profit with an extremely small staff with administrative work. The reality is many creators end up not seeing much monetary ROI in their web series due to their indie nature. We want to avoid having to take down projects because artists are too busy creating their next best work to re-sign while reducing our legal fees for negotiating said renewals. That being said we do offer limited releases and can schedule on the back end of the app for your project to “expire”

Standard Terms + Conditions’ are on the bottom of the submission page (within submittable) - It's the check box.

• For easy access: “Terms and Conditions: *By submitting your project to OTV-Open Television LLC, you agree to the following terms and conditions:  Filmmakers must submit their media files as downloadable URL links - 1080P or higher resolution. Do not send your master tape or original. Submission of film constitutes your affirmation that it does not violate any copyright. ’The film(s) may be produced anywhere in the world. Artist hereby grants OTV - Open Television the right to utilize footage, BTS, stills, biographical material, names and likenesses from the film for promotional purposes and in the distribution program. OTV Open Television shall not be held liable for inadvertent errors or omissions as it relates to the submitted work. OTV Open Television and Artist reserves the right to cancel any film releases and remove content.”

This is for online social marketing assets, drop trailers (where multiple films are in 1 trailer), app assets (banners, thumbnails), social media promo (instagram post) etc. This clause is in there only for marketing purposes and you will receive the marketing assets to share when its been created as well.

• Why: Based on the number of artists and projects we onboard and market - there tends to be a large bottleneck with late responses for approvals which affects our timelines and the artist's launch experience. It keeps the process moving and you will receive the assets as well.

No problem. You own all the rights to your project and we would be happy to remove it from any channels as you see fit. We can terminate the agreement and pull assets from the app with 14 days, if requested by the artist. You would do this by emailing Development@weareo.tv

We can terminate the agreement and pull assets from the app with 14 days, if requested by the artist. You would do this by emailing Development@weareo.tv.

• Why: We (historically) do not renegotiate a submitted films license fee once it's been onboarded because we pay a one time license fee and the yearly grant funded slate budget restrictions. 

Yes. OTV has options for videos on demand including but not limited to, a one-time public livestream via OTV app (free) or PAY-PER-VIEW (paid) via the OTV APP.

Absolutely. If you have a specific vision for distribution terms or length we are able to customize our contract to reflect what the artist feels most confident with.

Submit a request for update through this portal.

We encourage your film to have a journey outside and alongside OTV. If you are a showcase artists, we can schedule your drop to support your festival journey. This way we can still premiere your film at the showcase - nodding to "coming soon!".  Our recommendation is looking at your festival notification timeline and seeing when you would hear back from your last festival submission that has "no digital release" in the submission requirements. Then we can work from there!