Our Team
The Business & Legal Affairs department is responsible for all television business affairs and legal matters related to the acquisition and pre-broadcast review of all content used worldwide by Discovery’s television networks. The department negotiates and drafts acquisition, commission, co-production, and talent agreements; reviews scripts and rough cuts of programs prior to broadcast to minimize legal exposure; analyzes media rights associated with all programming agreements; responds to usage requests made by the company’s many lines of businesses; and provides advice and counsel on a wide array of production-related and legal issues such as guild, insurance, and rights clearances.

The Role
The Royalties Accountant will play a significant role by acting as the company’s key representative for collecting royalties for the company’s owned music assets and collecting any applicable audio-visual secondary rights royalties for the company’s owned long-form content.

1. Collect royalties worldwide for the company’s owned music assets. As applicable, disperse any payments to external entities for music assets that are not fully controlled by the company.
2. For content that is subject to audio-visual secondary rights collection, collect all royalties worldwide from the collection societies.
3. Build strong working relationships with the global collection society contacts and serve as the main accounting contact with the societies.
4. Prepare external royalty payable statements and record accruals in the company’s general ledger.
5. Prepare and distribute royalty receivable invoice billings and track subsequent collection.
6. Record all royalty related activity in the company’s general ledger.
7. Create a comprehensive schedule that tracks contractual minimum guarantees and advances against subsequent sales earning against the advances and minimum guarantees paid.
8. Maintain details related to royalty calculation percentages per contract.
9. Any other duties as determined by the supervisor.

* A proven skill base covering the above functions would be a key advantage.
* 2+ years of accounting or finance experience
* The ideal candidate will have a working knowledge of music rights (e.g., synchronization, master, mechanical, publisher share, composer share) and concepts related to audio-visual secondary rights.
* Must have strong IT skills and be comfortable with databases, Excel, Word, and PowerPoint.
* Excellent interpersonal skills with the ability to work effectively at all levels within the company.
* Clear and concise communicator (both orally and written) and able to summarize complex information.
* Well organized with excellent attention to detail.
* Minimum of 2 years relevant experience.
* Bachelor’s Degree in finance or accounting or equivalent experience required.
* Must have strong analytical skills with a strong desire to collect previously uncollected royalties.
* Candidate should have general understanding of accounting principles and be able to prepare accounting journal entries.
* Ability to work in a deadline-driven environment on multiple projects and stay calm under pressure.
* The ideal candidate will be a bright, diligent self-starter who thinks and communicates clearly, is well organized, proactive, and grasps concepts quickly.
* Emotionally intelligent outlook with the ability to diffuse and calm others.
* Inclusive behavior and makes sure all key stakeholders are kept in the loop.
* Ability to manage time judiciously and deal effectively with competing interests.
* Enthusiastic, confident, sociable, and able to interact with clients from different cultures and backgrounds.
* Team player with a flexible and hands on approach.
* CPA certification or Master’s degree is a plus.

Knoxville, Tennessee, KX, TN