Sell Your Weather or Breaking News Video

Photography and Videography Tips
Written By William Wight

If anyone has ever seen a breaking news and weather video posted on a social media platform like Twitter or Facebook, the odds are pretty high that one has seen the comments from various news media sources asking if they can use said video for free and they will receive credit for the video. For the average person, sounds like an amazing opportunity! Your video might be used on national or international news for about 5-8 seconds and you will see your name. What if I told you you could have done that, PLUS, maybe put a little extra cash in your pocket?

Giving your video away for free

Before we begin, we understand local news stations might not have the budget to purchase a video. This is more driven towards the national and international news organizations, but there are stipulations you need to look out for when working with local stations which can make working with local stations a little more complicated. that is something we can touch on later.

So, what does happen when a video is given away for free? Sometimes they will send a link they ask the person to agree to when they ask. Sadly, many do not read them. Below are a few examples of what it might look like when they ask to use the material and then the last one will be a screenshot of simply the first thing you accept.

An example of one of the many things you are agreeing to when a news organization asks to use your material for free.

They spell most of the above terms out for you, which is nice to see since they used to not do that, but what they fail to explain in further detail is everything from the sub-licensable part to the end. So we are going to break this down for you further.

Sub-licensable

What they mean when they say they are going to “license the Content to third parties,” is they can and will turn around and SELL that video for money. You are licensing that video and its rights to them for 5-8 seconds of name credit on a screen so they can turn around and sell it again to several other news agencies and organizations.

Transferable and Worldwide

They are legally able to sell and transfer these rights to other organizations all around the world. These organizations can then continue to do the same with the video as much as they want.

Permits use to use, produce, edit reformat, publicly perform, distribute, display, prepare derivative works from, and exploit the Content…

This long sentence essentially says we can manipulate this work however we want to use it in Ads or other works that we use to sell or bring in money from for as ever long as we want to.

So in summary, you are giving your video away to these companies for them to turn around and use it to make free money off of it, all for 5-8 seconds of fame and credit. A unique situation we had mentioned in the beginning was with local news stations. When a local news station asks to use your work, oftentimes, they honestly will use their work on their broadcasts. The unique situation comes into play when their parent companies at the national level get involved and want to use that video at the national level. If that occurs, and it often does, the above license agreement we had talked about will occur.

So what can you do to avoid these situations? Work with a broker - Limitless Production Group LLC, is here to help!

How can Limitless Production Group LLC help you?

Limitless Production Group LLC, and our broker, have teamed up to help give you the chance to be able to turn that potentially breaking news and weather video into some extra cash both locally and national/internationally. Have some video you think you could sell, or have someone reach out to you about wanting to use your video? Contact us! We will walk you through the process of trying to get your video sold. While we can’t guarantee a sale every time to a local, national, or international news organization. We can assure you that your videos won’t be sold out from under you.

Feel free to contact us via our various social media platforms or send us an email: brokering@limitlessproductiongroup.com

Enjoy capturing videos and want to try to make a little extra money?

Do you enjoy capturing videos, especially videos of breaking news events or the weather? Happen to be a storm chaser or storm spotter? At Limitless Production Group LLC we are looking to also expand our freelancer network across the United States. For more information, please send us an email!
Email: brokering@limitlessproductiongroup.com

Additional Tips for Recording Better Brokering Video

Want some tips to capture better videos that could sell? Check out the story linked below!
5 Tips to Capture Better Video That You Can Sell

William Wight
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