Do I Have the Licensing Rights for Using TV in My Waiting Room?

This question is becoming much more common these days as motion picture companies, television studios and others are sending threatening letters to business owners. It doesn’t matter what industry you are in– if you operate a medical office, restaurant, retail establishment or car dealership, you can be held liable for showing television content that you don’t have adequate permission to display.

And it doesn’t matter how you are playing this content, whether it’s on a DVD, or through a popular streaming provider like Netflix, Hulu, Disney+ or YouTube. Showing that content inside a business is likely against copyright terms, and could put you in legal jeopardy. Hulu’s Terms & Conditions for instance clearly state that their service is NOT for commercial use. Therefore, you cannot use it in a public or business setting- even in a waiting room.

Did you receive a threatening letter from a licensing company?

While there may be many valid points in a letter you’ve received in the mail from a content licensing organization, you should read it carefully, and realize that there is not one licensing body for all content. In a lot of cases these letters are designed to scare you into using a service that they are selling. Many of these services will offer a solution that shows a limited library of uninteresting content, looped on your TV day in and day out. You don’t need to trade away interesting television for “safe” TV when there are options out there that are both safe and interesting.

Just know, you are not obligated to use any specific licensing service in your business or waiting room. You just need to be sure that whatever service you are using has secured commercial playback rights for the content you are showing.

There are TV Providers that Include Business Display Licensing as Part of the Service

While Hulu, Netflix, Sling, Pluto and other streamers do NOT provide commercial licensing at the time of this article, there are other providers who do. And that’s what you want to utilize in order to keep your in the copyright-clear. It’s Relevant TV is one service provider that was built with integrated commercial licensing from day one. It’s cost-effective, easy-to-use, and features a growing library of over half-a-million videos. In addition to being the best streaming option for businesses, it’s also the best cable replacement on the market.

Using Netflix & DVDs in Your Business: Don’t Put Yourself at Risk

There it is – did you read it? You probably saw it, but did you really read what it says? Me neither. At least not after years and years of seeing it, or a similar message at the beginning of every movie I’ve ever watched.

Well, in case you still haven’t read it, it says:

“Federal law provides severe civil and criminal penalties for the unauthorized reproduction, distribution or exhibition of copyrighted motion pictures, video tapes, or video disc.”

So what does this mean exactly? In short, it means that if you own something like a DVD of a movie, or a CD, you can’t legally burn copies of that disc and sell them to people, or even hand them out for free. Nor are you allowed to show that movie or play that album for the general public without the expressed consent to do so. If you’re looking for a something you can play instead, take a look at It’s Relevant TV.

You might be wondering where the line is drawn, and it’s a fair question. Just like when you get a driver’s license that allows you to drive a car, when you buy anything like a DVD you’re buying the license to watch or listen to that media privately.

Now before you go taking a hammer to your home theater, it’s important to note that while those licenses are private, it doesn’t exclude friends and family from enjoying them as well – the means to actually traffic and enforce that would simply be ridiculous. So long as your viewing is limited to personal and non-commercial use, you’re not in violation of the Terms & Conditions.

Is it Legal for Me to Show Netflix in My Business?

In short: No.
But this is an easy question to clarify by looking at Netflix’s terms of service:

“The Netflix service and any content viewed through our service are for your personal and non-commercial use only. During your Netflix membership, we grant you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, license to access the Netflix service and view Netflix content through the service. Except for the foregoing limited license, no right, title or interest shall be transferred to you. You agree not to use the service for public performances.”

This is a prime example of how companies lay out licensing agreements. Does this mean you can’t show Finding Nemo in your waiting room? Unfortunately, you can’t. The difference between throwing the movie into your DVD player at home, and the TV at your office – is that one is at home (personal), and the other is a business (public). It’s the same reason you can’t buy a Taylor Swift CD and play her songs outside your store to attract customers. You can try, but it’s illegal, and it’s not good when you get caught. Companies take this sort of thing very seriously.

But Were DVDs or Netflix a Good Idea in the First Place?

When your visitors are at your location do they really want to watch a movie? Not really. They’re there for a reason and don’t want to be around long. People want to watch the TV as a distraction while they wait, but can’t be invested in a long-form program or movie.

The average time spent in a waiting room varies from business to business. Dentist offices come in at 5 to 10 minutes, whereas you could be waiting up to 20 minutes at a doctor’s office. Even if you could play the movies you wanted, a typical feature-length flick usually runs over or just under two hours. So unless you’re waiting over an hour for your car to be serviced, you’d only catch 1/12th or 1/6th of the movie – starting from who-knows-where.

The sort of programming that runs in a lobby should compliment the length of time people are going to be waiting there, with the notion that they’re not going to be fully invested in whatever’s on the screen.

So What Can You Play Instead?

It’s Relevant TV features a network of original content spanning across a vast selection of categories. And unlike a DVD or Netflix, all of the content is licensed for public display. From kid’s entertainment to the national news, the programs are on average two and a half minutes long – long enough to hold someone’s attention in a waiting room and feel as though they left entertained or informed.

Feeling Loopy? Repetitive Slideshows Leave Customers More Anxious

What is it about an environment that makes you feel bored? What makes you feel like time is moving slowly, or that you have been waiting a long time? It probably wouldn’t surprise you to hear that many people cite repetitive (or looping) television programs to be a major factor.

Repetition can be seen everywhere

Repeating over and over

Have you ever been at a medical office and seen the same “medical facts” flash on the screen a number of times before seeing your doctor?

How about the gas station where the screen plays the same advertisement or weather forecast multiple times in 3 minutes?

Have you ever been at a restaurant and seen the same news stories played every 15 minutes?

If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, you are not alone! Businesses often turn to television content providers with limited libraries of content to show “relevant” content to their customers. Unfortunately, most of these providers don’t take into consideration the amount of time customers wait, or the average frequency of visits the same customer makes in any given week or month.

Showing the same content over and over is boring

Bored Man When people are bored they feel like their time is being wasted. Business owners don’t want to waste customers’ time. Happy customers make greater purchases and come back again in the future.

The It’s Relevant TV custom TV platform takes all of this into consideration.

The 5 Main Differentiators of It’s Relevant TV

1. There is no loop. The programs shown on the custom TV networks do not repeat over and over again in the same sequence.

2. The content library is gigantic. It’s Relevant TV licenses television programs from top TV producers and short-film makers around the world. As a result, the company constantly changes the content they deliver to each of the partner televisions.

3. It’s Relevant TV constantly updates the content. Some other services “refresh” the content on custom networks once or twice a month. It’s Relevant TV releases new content to partners almost hourly, expanding the library and creating new experiences all the time.

4. It’s Relevant TV makes custom TV easy to control. Some other solutions require that the business owners have to go in and select specific videos that they want played, and then have to go back and change their selections anytime they want the programming on their TV to change. It’s Relevant TV changes the programming for you, while keeping within your preferences and parameters. Instead of picking specific videos, you simply choose from a list of 50 categories of content. The service then continues to deliver videos in only the categories you select.

5. They take care of the licensing. This is a big deal, and will become an even bigger deal in the years to come. Some services allow business owners to display YouTube videos on their TVs. Simply put: THAT IS ILLEGAL. YouTube’s terms of use prohibit broadcasting content publicly. Users who upload videos to YouTube give YouTube limited rights to display their content only on certain monetized online platforms. Since taking the content off the platform is essentially stealing it, the owner of the content could come after your business if you use it that way.

For more information and to explore creating your own non-looping custom channel contact It’s Relevant TV via phone at: 855-ITS-RELE or via email at: support@itsrelevant.com