1. Industries & Practices

Media & Entertainment

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From development through release, we help studios, networks, publishers, and digital platforms navigate the legal friction points—talent, rights, licensing, and disputes—without losing momentum.

Overview

From Hollywood blockbusters to animated shorts, the media and entertainment ecosystem spans high‑stakes content creation, rapid distribution change, and brand‑sensitive reputational exposure. Matters often require legal judgment that accounts for commercial realities, evolving platforms, and rights that intersect across jurisdictions and formats.

Our Focus

ArentFox Schiff supports media and entertainment organizations and talent as they develop, produce, distribute, and monetize content in a fast‑moving marketplace. Working closely with client teams, our attorneys address the legal and business issues that arise across the content lifecycle—where intellectual property, publicity, licensing, and reputational risk frequently converge.

Focus Areas

In Media & Entertainment, we support clients with:

What Do We Do?

  • Negotiate talent agreements and related deal documentation.
  • Advise on distribution and marketing issues, including rights and commercial terms. 
  • Conduct pre‑publication defamation review, where appropriate.
  • Secure international broadcast licenses and related rights arrangements.
  • Litigate copyright, trademark, and idea theft disputes.
  • Litigate defamation and right of publicity claims.
  • Draft software licenses and related technology agreements.
  • Counsel clients on a range of legal and business issues that arise in media and entertainment matters.

Who Do We Help?

  • Movie studios and film production companies
  • Television producers, broadcasters, and networks
  • Publishers and media companies
  • Digital music services
  • Celebrities and talent
  • Multimedia developers and publishers
  • Independent production companies (including smaller and emerging teams)

How Can We Help?

Legal support often becomes critical when a project moves from concept to contract, a distribution strategy changes, content is prepared for publication, or a dispute emerges over rights, use, or reputation. We assist when clients need to negotiate talent and distribution terms, clear and license rights (including internationally), evaluate defamation exposure prior to publication, or address claims involving IP, idea theft, publicity, or defamation.

Our Experience

Our group includes attorneys with experience across transactional, regulatory, counseling, and litigation matters spanning multiple segments of the media and entertainment industries. The practice represents a range of industry participants and well‑known brands and catalogs.

Representative clients and industry participants include: Walt Disney, Pixar, Warner Bros. Discovery (Oprah Winfrey Network, Animal Planet, Motor Trend, TLC, The Science Channel, HBO, TBS, TNT, CNN, TruTV, Cinemax, Adult Swim, Cartoon Network), EA Sports, The Saul Zaentz Company (Lord of The Rings, The Hobbit), Amazon, Sony PlayStation, Apple, and Google.

Recognitions

  • Recognized by Billboard and Chambers as one of the premier media and entertainment practices in the country.
  • Chambers has described ArentFox Schiff as one of the “go to” practices for television and movie studios.
  • The practice has been described as doing more non‑fiction television legal work than any other firm in the country.

FAQs

What kinds of agreements do you handle in media and entertainment matters?

We negotiate and document talent agreements and other deal arrangements that support production, distribution, and commercialization, including related rights and commercial terms.

Do you advise on defamation risk before publication or release?

Yes. Where appropriate, we conduct pre‑publication defamation review to help identify and assess risk before content is released, published, or broadcast.

Can you help with licensing and distribution across countries or platforms?

We secure international broadcast licenses and advise on distribution and marketing issues, including rights strategies that account for different territories, platforms, and formats.

What types of disputes does your team litigate?

We litigate copyright, trademark, idea theft, defamation, and right of publicity matters, along with related disputes that may arise from creative development, publication, or commercialization issues, conducting pre-publication defamation review, securing international broadcast licenses, litigating copyright, trademark, idea theft, defamation, and right of publicity claims, drafting software licenses, and counseling our clients on a wide range of legal and business issues.

Our group comprises seasoned attorneys experienced in transactional, regulatory, counseling, and litigation matters across every segment of the media and entertainment industries. Our clients include Walt Disney, Pixar, Warner Bros. Discovery (Oprah Winfrey Network, Animal Planet, Motor Trend, TLC, The Science Channel, HBO, TBS, TNT, CNN, TruTV, Cinemax, Adult Swim, Cartoon Network), EA Sports, and The Saul Zaentz Company (Lord of The Rings, The Hobbit), Amazon, Sony PlayStation, Apple, and Google, just to name a few.