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by bryanlarsen 3711 days ago
Netflix funded production, so would have had strong leverage over MRC's relicensing. We can't see the contracts, but I'm fairly confident that Netflix would have had at least right of first refusal for rights for any region.
1 comments
drspacemonkey 3711 days ago
Leverage only goes so far. Since it was originally a BBC show ~20 years ago, chances are that country-specific rights were sold off long before Netflix got involved.
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bryanlarsen 3711 days ago
Why would the licensing of the old shows have anything to do with the licensing of the new shows?

MRC licensed the name and concept from the BBC. That license would definitely not be regionalized.

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drspacemonkey 3711 days ago
It's likely impossible to say without having insider knowledge. Perhaps somebody with international IP law could weigh in.

But it appears there's an added wrinkle. Back when the show started production, MRC sold off rights in countries where Netflix didn't yet operate. CanalPlus in France and Sky Deutschland in Germany managed to get exclusive rights in their respective countries. Netflix is trying to get the rights globally, but they can't force anyone to sell them anything.

source: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/netflix-subscribers-eu...

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