Senior Business and Legal Affairs Manager, Entertainment

BBC Group and Public Services; London; Hybrid; GBP 80,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading company in the entertainment sector is seeking a Senior Business and Legal Affairs Manager. The role involves negotiating complex agreements and providing legal advice to maximize business opportunities. Candidates should have substantial experience in media law and strong stakeholder management skills.

Benefits

Flexible working hours

26 days holiday

Parental leave

Defined contribution pension scheme

Career progression opportunities

Qualifications

• Experience in Business and Legal Affairs in media sector.
• Significant experience in drafting media rights agreements.

Responsibilities

• Negotiate and draft complex production agreements.
• Provide legal and business affairs advice to production teams.
• Manage a broad workload autonomously.

Skills

Stakeholder Management

Risk Management

Negotiation

Business Acumen

Education

Qualified Lawyer

Job description

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Senior Business and Legal Affairs Manager, Entertainment

Legal & Rights Management

Permanent - Full Time

London, GB, W12 7FA

Job Closing Date: 28/05/2025

THE ROLE

Job Reference: 23600
Band: E
Salary: Up to £100,000 depending on relevant skills, knowledge and experience plus London Weighting Allowance of £5,319 discretionary bonus of 15%. The expected salary range for this role reflects internal benchmarking and external market insights.
Location: Office base is London Television Centre. This is a hybrid role and the successful candidate will balance office working with home working.

ABOUT BBC STUDIOS

BBC Studios is a world-renowned content studio and channels and streaming business, powered by British creativity, with a reach that touches audiences in every corner of the globe.

We work with outstanding creative talent who are responsible for platform-defining shows from Strictly Come Dancing to Eastenders, Prehistoric Planet to Planet Earth III.

The range and quality of our content is unsurpassed, creating critical and commercial successes and global phenomena.

From BAFTAs to RTS Awards, BBC Studios is Britain’s most awarded production company and the only producer with three of the top ten shows on IMDB; we’re the home of bbc.com, the widest-read English language news website in the world; and the UK’s largest distributor of British content.

ABOUT ENTERTAINMENT PRODUCTION

Within the Entertainment production genre, we make an astonishing variety of programming across entertainment, music, fact ent and events for the BBC and for commercial channels – last year we delivered over 800 hours of content to commissioners. Just some of the programmes we produce in Entertainment are: Strictly Come Dancing, Pete Wicks: For Dogs’ Sake, Later with Jools Holland, the BBC’s Eurovision broadcasts, Comic Relief, One Show, Morning Live, Dragons Den, Countryfile, Gardeners’ World, Bargain Hunt, Antiques Roadshow, travelogues involving Paddy McGuinness with Chris Harris and Big Zuu with AJ Tracey, and national events such as royal weddings/funerals/jubilees/coronations (along with producing all aspects of the Jubilee Concert and the Coronation Concert) and national war memorial events such as the anniversary events for D-day and VE Day.

Entertainment is now part of an exciting new Global Entertainment group within BBC Studios which has production teams across the globe including in the US, Australia, Europe and South Africa. Within Global Entertainment we also sell formats globally, including Dancing with the Stars to more than 60 countries worldwide as the franchise celebrates its 20th anniversary this year.

About Entertainment Production’s Business and Legal Affairs team

The BLA team that supports the Entertainment production teams consists of around 15 people who are mainly based in London with three people in our Bristol and Cardiff offices supporting the fact ent productions teams there.

THE ROLE

We have an exciting opportunity in our Entertainment production Legal and Business Affairs team as Senior Business and Legal Affairs Manager.

Main Responsibilities:

• Negotiate and draft a wide range of complex production and development agreements, including but not limited to key on-screen talent, linear/SVOD commissioning, distribution, co-production, funding and other rights agreements.
• Anticipate and mitigate legal, financial, reputational and business risk while at the same time offering strategies or alternative ideas to resolve them.
• Be the principal point of contact for the production areas you support, and deliver timely and high quality legal and business affairs advice in order to maximise the opportunity for the business to deliver on its goals.
• Manage a broad workload autonomously and unsupervised, referring upwards as required.
• Propose and deliver structures for complicated rights and commercial deals, and understand and implement commercial and business strategies.
• Offer senior support to the Head of Legal and Business Affairs, including deputising when required.
• Provide line management and/or supervision support to the Business Affairs Managers, Executives and Assistants.
• Form excellent working relationships with the production teams that you support in order that you become a trusted advisor to those teams who can depend on you for timely and high quality advice.
• Form excellent working relationships with other parts of the BBC group as well as key external contacts.
• To champion the BBC Group values, creating a supportive and dynamic culture that encourages trust, empowerment, collaboration, creativity, and diversity.

WHAT DOES IT TAKE?

ESSENTIAL CRITERIA

• Comprehensive understanding of and experience in Business and Legal Affairs in the media sector;
• Significant experience in (i) complex drafting and negotiation of a variety of media rights agreements and (ii) advising upon and managing risk;
• Strong skateholder management working with senior stakeholders;
• Highly business-oriented operating with a commercial approach;

DESIRABLE CRITERIA

• Qualified lawyer (or similar legal qualification) with an appropriate level of PQE to be able to effectively carry out the job responsibilities is highly preferred;
• Knowledge of, and experience in, television content production specifically;
• Experience in a commercial, global organisation.
• A passion for media

LIFE AT BBC STUDIOS

We don’t focus simply on what we do – we also care how we do it. Our values and the way we behave are important to us. Please make sure you’ve read about our values and behaviours here .

The BBC is committed to building a culturally diverse workforce, that represents the audiences we serve, and encourages applications from candidates from any background, especially people from diverse communities. Equity of opportunity is important to us, and we endeavour to make our processes equal, fair and meritocratic for everybody. More information on our D&I plan can be found here.

BBC Studios puts sustainability at the heart of everything we do both onscreen and offscreen, including delivering against the BBC Group’s science-based Net Zero targets. More information on sustainability at BBC Studios can be found here.

We are proud to share that we are a Level 2 Disability Confident Employer and if you require any reasonable adjustments in order to apply please contact us on [e-mail].

WHAT YOU WILL GAIN FROM BBC STUDIOS?

• We offer a competitive salary package
• Flexible 35-hour working week for work-life balance
• 26 days holiday (plus an additional day which is a Corporation Day) with the option to buy an extra 5 days
• Parental leave for new parents, regardless of gender, of up to a year with 18 weeks fully paid
• A defined contribution pension scheme with employer contributions up to 10%; and life assurance (at 4 times annual salary), eligibility for discounted dental, health care, gym and much more through salary sacrifice
• Excellent career progression – access to courses, webinars, workshops and the opportunity to work in different areas of the organisation
  

NEXT STEPS

We appreciate your interest in this position and understand how important this opportunity is to you. Due to the high volume of interest we may need to close the application period earlier than anticipated. This step is necessary to ensure we can provide a high level of attention and service to all applicants. Thank you for your understanding.

Please note: If you were to be offered this role, the BBC will conduct Employment screening checks which include Reference checks; Eligibility to work checks; and if applicable to the role, Safeguarding and Adverse media/Social media checks. Any offer made is conditional on these checks being satisfactory.

DISCLAIMER

This job description is a written statement of the essential characteristics of the job, with its principal accountabilities, incorporating a note of the skills, knowledge and experience required for a satisfactory level of performance. This is not intended to be a complete, detailed account of all aspects of the duties involved.

BBC Group and Public Services, Broadcasting House, Portland Place, London, United Kingdom, W1A 1AA. BBC Studios Distribution Limited, company no: 01420028, registered address: 1 Television Centre, 101 Wood Lane, London, United Kingdom W12 7FA.