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This TV is under embargo

These are some of the more extreme requests now required of reviewers & journos.

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A few years ago a publicist might have handed you a DVD and said “Please don’t reveal the ending,” you would reply “Yep, understood!” and that would be the end of the matter.

But not in 2019.

While DVDs have thankfully gone the way of VHS screeners (these days all media previews are a link), the security around viewing content is off the charts.

And we’re not just talking about watermarks to thwart piracy.

Now you need a lawyer to read through the non-disclosure agreements that accompany any kind of viewing experience.

The shift has come from networks increasingly seeking to control the narrative at the same time as media looking for any unique angle they can nab in a noisy landscape. Content, and sometimes a producers’ vision, gets a little lost in the bunfight.

It isn’t uncommon for a media company to say “Reviews are embargoed” until a specific date. The most extreme of these was the day of broadcast.

More recently this has extended to “features, social media and mentions” also being restricted by date. I’ve even seen “embargo date is confidential” so I can’t even tell you the date when I am allowed to talk about a show.

Remember that this is for a process where I’m the messenger endeavouring to shuffle people to the event….

Sometimes previews are given to select journos first, and such arrangements usually result in generous copy. One 90 minute preview I watched recently edited out the final scene leaving me so irate my mood was reflected in what I eventually wrote.

Another broadcaster was so dismayed by a tabloid story last year lifting quotes from an interview that it has led to a blanket embargo of two weeks before broadcast on all shows.

“The contents cannot be communicated to – or used to seek comment from – third parties, including those featured in the program, until that date.”

It’s a shame the response was so extreme (and confusing given the broadcaster itself is publicising the same shows that are under embargo to the rest of us). The left hand doesn’t always know what the right hand is doing in TV…..

And then there are Non-Disclosure Agreements, especially in the world of Reality TV. These can carry all kinds of legal jargon about what’s expected of you and the damages if you don’t play ball.

This week I even received one pointing out that “damages will not be an adequate remedy” should I break confidentialities. Would an arm and leg suffice?

For my money, media works on a simple thing known as Trust.

But I guess a few bad clickbait apples & paparazzi have led to situations where everybody now has to put everything in writing and tighten the screws accordingly. I can’t imagine anyone is happy about it. Ok, maybe the lawyers.

Yet when there are so many shows vying for coverage it’s also possible to over-egg things.

If there are too many clauses and legal hoops to jump through, I find a show falls into the “too hard” basket. It’s easier just to give the attention to one that isn’t so paranoid, and common sense prevails.

In my experience it is always readers who will get irate about spoilers more than networks, and rightly so.

I get that a lot of money rests on content being unveiled on air with advertising dollars around it, but it feels like we have an entered the outer limits of what constitutes trust with reviewers.

Time to chill. After all, it’s only Television.

12 Responses

  1. They need to stop piracy, and the embarrassing stories that episodes being leaked generate. And these days they can use their own websites, streaming systems, magazines and newspapers to promote their shows and cut out the middle man. And now they are trying to cultivate tame media who for exclusives will give favourable reviews. The same thing happened with video games.

    However if reviewers don’t give honest opinions, people will just ignore them and find something else to watch. So it won’t benefit the networks in the long run.

  2. Arguably the point that gets lost about content and copyright is that the viewer is a consumer too and needs to know about new products, the commercial imperative for generating advertising revenue is not a priority for them so the more pre broadcast anticipation that can be generated the better it will be for the featured programs debut. GoT is a good example of maximising hype, the expectation can become greater than the final reveal of the show itself including those clever Tweet from actors and well edited trailers. Fan sites probably do more for a shows popularity than the studios themselves and nothing will save a badly scripted or produced show no matter how much is spent on promoting it, so in the end it’s just a lot of highly paid people justifying their own existence in a cut throat commercial world..

  3. Many years ago when I was programming WIN, Bruce Gordon had stitched up a deal with the networks that they would tell me when they had major product scheduled so I could get it scheduled for “simulcast” and get hold of promotional material. I could also tell our national sales people so they could get sponsors – but I couldn’t tell anyone else or put it in our published program guides (which had an earlier deadline than the metro stations). It was a nightmare. Seems like nothing much has changed!!

  4. Some brilliant insight here, thank you for sharing (and venting), David. As a music reviewer, we often have similar very strict restrictions. However once (within the last six months), a ruling for a major international act’s new album included that “commentary and positive reviews are embargoed until while critical comments or negative reviews will not be tolerated until “. That was a whole new level. Ever received a similar demand? If not, it’s only a matter of time…

    1. Yikes. Glad I got out when I did then. All I had to deal with was watermarks & single use passwords.

      Unfortunately, as others have stated, it’s the “first” mentality. Being first usually equates to more page-views, which equates to the probability of more people sticking around, etc, etc, etc…

      Great article David.

  5. Well said David. I have little doubt they are making it increasingly difficult to do your job. Personally, I’m done with click bait advertising, esp for some of the reality shows. It’s almost never what they imply and often the opposite. It makes me not watch those shows.

  6. It is a long time since I have read such a brilliant post, that has left me wanting to know a whole lot more. Copywrite laws have expanded in so many directions, it’ no longer just a can of worms, it is a ‘bucket of scorpions’
    Who is a reviewer ? What constitutes a review ? Who is liable ? Can even the public talk freely ?
    Only a pathetic person would intentionally ‘spoiler’ a movie. Does ” spoiler ahead !” cut it, or is it just a way of pretending to be responsible. But now we are talking ’embargoes’, who ( if not all ), is at risk of breaking it. how are they made public knowledge ? Yesterday, I talked about the movie ‘I O’. While I didn’t say “the butler did it” , I really couldn’t have bagged it much more. The same as “‘don’t even enter the theatre “. Am I a reviewer, or a gossiper ??????

  7. I think media works on a different simple thing: First.

    For me a lot of the embargo stuff seems pretty reasonable and I would have thought quite common. Even the date thing – knowing that someone can say something after a certain date probably lets you make an educated guess about it. Other channel program heads might take that information and program against it.

    I find the most annoying thing is when a show gets reviewed or the start date is announced so in advanced that I can’t even program it on the PVR yet. Much better if it was the week or so before and then its fresh.

  9. The first couple of seasons of I’m a celebrity were very hush hush about who was going into the jungle & we didn’t find out till the show aired. But the last couple there have been leaks. This year there were so many 10 just gave up & released all the names. It’s a shame that media have to spoil it for everyone who may want to be surprised.

    1. 10 happily revealed names by straight up announcing them or leaking them to certain people but held onto the camp divide for example. I thought it was a nice little game of “attract attention” by drip feeding names but still had plenty of surprises. Ratings would suggest this method has actually worked! I didn’t think it would but what would I know?

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