Garrigues is a leading legal adviser in the audiovisual and entertainment sector. We provide services to both traditional production companies and major Hollywood studios, to audiovisual service providers - including international streaming platforms -, to media groups and to other operators in the sector.

We cover all stages of the audiovisual process: creative development, production, marketing and distribution (including contracts with exhibitors), script and title clearance on fiction and nonfiction projects for cinema and television and all audiovisual communication services. We also advise content creators and actors on defending their rights.

We combine the talents of top-tier experts in each area of law to offer an integrated and multidisciplinary service, supported by our profound knowledge of the industry. Our dedicated team of intellectual property, regulatory, tax, labor and employment, corporate, antitrust and litigation experts are able to handle technically complex projects and queries, helping ensure productions and contracts remain on track.

We visit studios and film sets, reviewing scripts and rough cuts and suggesting creative solutions where scripts may affect personality rights (honor, personal portrayal, privacy as opposed to the right to information, freedom of expression and literary and artistic freedom). We also negotiate agreements at all stages and defend our clients’ interests in court when so required.

We are present at some of the largest international festivals and forums, being well versed in audiovisual and film legislation and on good terms with the regulatory bodies (ICAA, CNMC, ministries, etc.) and our team has taken part in some of the largest concentrations in the sector, as well as finance deals for high-profile audiovisual productions. We have extensive experience in negotiations with author and artist management entities in both Europe and Latin America.

Our services

Acquisitions of companies and businesses, investment and divestment agreements, strategic alliances and corporate transactions (mergers, spin-offs, etc.) at companies in the audiovisual field

Advice on audiovisual productions

Creative development and financing stage
- Production and co-production agreements.
- Investment and finance agreements (gap financing, completion bonds, complex financing structures), including copyright mortgages.
- Advice on public subsidies and aid, both in the form of selective and general aid for production, and also for distribution, participation at festivals or amortization of costs. Our services cover:
  - Analysis of eligibility and strategic planning: review of the production structure, nationality of the work, technical and artistic score and compatibility with other aid or tax incentives.
  - Appeals and submissions: challenges against refusals or reductions, with a special focus on scoring and cultural assessment criteria.
  - Coordination between public aid and tax incentives for audiovisual works.
  - Advice on repayment of aid.
- Contracts relating to chain of title (underlying rights, formats, scriptwriters, script consultants, advisers, etc.).
- Negotiation of agreements for presale of rights as an advance funding mechanism for film and audiovisual productions.
- Script clearance in terms of compliance with the law or content policies.
Production stage
- Contracts with talent (directors, composers, actors, executive producers, technical crew, etc.) subject to labor legislation.
- Comprehensive advice on music law and music contracts (composition, phonogram production, synchronization licenses, etc.).
- Advice on countrywide and regional tax incentives (we have tax law specialists in every area with local incentives: countrywide, Canary Islands, the Basque Country and Navarre.
- Clearance of rough cuts of sequences and episodes in terms of compliance with the law and/or content policies.
- Trademark licensing for merchandising.
Marketing, sharing, distribution and sales
- Review of marketing materials.
- Agreements between platforms and collecting societies.
- Licensing of rights, programs, content and channels, and output deals.

Broad-spectrum regulatory advice

Queries and legal opinions on industry regulations and the obligations of public and private audiovisual communication service providers. In-depth knowledge of the European regulatory framework on AI and its relationship with the entertainment industry.