6
Backend
As discussed throughout Chapters 4 and 5 above, contingent compensation (often referred to as “profit participation” or “backend”) is a key component of numerous agreements with the key creative talent and underlying rightsholders behind a television series. Backend represents the talent’s opportunity to share in the upside of a truly successful television series. When a series succeeds in a big way, the value of even a modest share of backend will easily prove far more valuable to the profit participant than whatever upfront fees he or she may have collected from the budget of the series over the course of the production.
As referenced in various sections above, to control the total amount of participations granted for any given series, ...
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