Main Responsibilities of a Vice President Business Affairs at ESPN
Heather's role as head of business affairs at ESPN and Disney involves negotiating the business terms of content creation, acting as a liaison between creative teams, production teams, development teams, and the legal team. This includes discussions around "what is it going to cost," "the deliverables," "promotion," and "derivative rights," before handing off fully developed terms to legal for contract drafting.
Negotiation, Contract Management, Media Production, Business Affairs, Legal
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Heather Anderson
Vice President, Original Content and Business Affairs
ESPN and The Walt Disney Company
UC Berkeley
UCLA School of Law - JD
Ethnic & Related Studies, Political Science, American Studies
Arts, Entertainment & Media, Law
Business Strategy
Took Out Loans, Worked 20+ Hours in School
Video Highlights
1. Heather's role involves negotiating business terms for content creation at ESPN, bridging creative teams with legal and production teams.
2. Responsibilities include cost negotiations, deliverables, promotion plans, and discussions of derivative rights with external representatives (agents, lawyers, packaging companies).
3. Her team finalizes business terms before handing off to legal for contract drafting, ensuring all legal aspects (jurisdiction, liability, termination) are included for a completed contract.
Transcript
What are your main responsibilities within your current role?
In my current role as head of business affairs, I act as a liaison between our creative, production, and development teams, as well as our legal team. When our creative teams are hearing pitches or developing content ideas for ESPN, they bring potential projects to my team.
My team's role is to begin negotiating the business terms for these projects. We then contact the representatives on the other side of the deal, such as agents, lawyers, or packaging companies. We start conversations about the business terms.
These discussions cover costs, deliverables, promotion plans, and derivative rights. Once the business terms are finalized, we hand the project over to our legal partners. They then draft the contracts.
Our legal partners add necessary legal terminology regarding jurisdiction, liability, and termination, ensuring a fully completed contract.
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