TV show merch, run for the production company that holds the rights.

What we run for a TV show

A series gives its viewers a title, a look and lines they repeat the next morning. Most of it never becomes a product, because nobody at a production company has the job of making one. We take that job. We design the range from the show, fund it, pay for the advertising and run the store, and you approve every piece before it goes on sale.

What a show gives a range

The title and its lettering

The mark every viewer already recognises. It carries the tee and the mug.

A line from one episode

It is quoted for a few weeks after it is shown, so it has to be ready before it is.

Something from the set

The mug on the desk, the sign over the door, the team’s kit. Viewers have looked at them for hours.

The format’s own words

A round, a ritual or a verdict that a returning format says every week.

Television has one advantage over a tour or a podcast: the series is usually finished before anyone sees it. So the range is designed from the finished episodes, and approved before the first one is shown. Online, each order is printed after it is placed, so a line can go on sale the day the terms allow, with no stock bought on a guess.

Who holds the rights

In the UK it depends on who commissioned the show. Ofcom’s guidance to the public service broadcasters says producers should keep the rights in their programmes unless they explicitly sell them, and names merchandising among the rights that “already tend to rest with the producer”. The broadcasters’ own codes and contracts follow it, each with a share and a date.

Official sourceParagraphs 2.17 and 2.26 of the guidance, published on 22 July 2025. · Source: Ofcom, Guidance for Public Service Broadcasters on Commissioning Codes of Practice · checked 13 October 2026

Commissioned by	Who keeps the rights	The broadcaster’s share	When it can go on sale
The BBC	✓The producer	10% of net revenue	The day after the episode is first shown
ITV	✓The producer	A share, in perpetuity	Once the episode has been shown
Channel 4	✓The producer	15% of net receipts	Once the last episode of the series has been shown

From each broadcaster’s current code and standard terms. The BBC’s framework takes the earliest of three dates, and the one given is the day after first transmission. An older contract may set a different share, so read your own.

Filed or disclosedSource: BBC, Code of Practice, BBC, Business and contractual information, ITV, Commissioning Code of Practice, Channel 4, Code of Practice for Commissioning Programmes from Independent Producers, Channel 4, Commissioning Agreement · checked 13 October 2026

Outside those terms

The codes cover independent productions made for the public service channels. A House of Commons committee reported in April 2025 that subscription streaming platforms “are not covered by terms of trade”, and asked the government to look at rules for them. A show built on the broadcaster’s own format, or on a format licensed from its owner, is a different case again. In each of them the answer is a clause in the commissioning agreement, and it is the first thing we ask to see.

Official sourceParagraphs 51 and 56 of the committee’s report, published on 10 April 2025; and paragraph 3.5 of the BBC’s code. · Source: Culture, Media and Sport Committee, British film and high-end television, BBC, Code of Practice · checked 13 October 2026

When it can be sold, and what the show can say

1. 1Eight weeks outDesigned from the finished episodes. The lines and the artwork are chosen from what will be shown.
2. 2Four weeks outArtwork approved. Nothing goes on sale before you have approved it.
3. 3Two weeks outThe date is public. Channel 4, for one, sends its listings to the press two weeks before transmission.
4. 4Episode oneThe series starts.
5. 5The day afterA BBC or ITV commission can sell the pieces made from that episode.
6. 6Episode 6The last episode.
7. 7The day after the lastA Channel 4 commission can sell. Its standard agreement holds merchandise back until the last episode has been shown.

A sample series, shown weekly. No programme is being announced, and the weeks before the first episode are our own schedule.

Filed or disclosedThe dates a sale is allowed are the broadcasters’ own terms. · Source: BBC, Business and contractual information, ITV, Commissioning Code of Practice, Channel 4, Commissioning Agreement, Channel 4, Frequently asked questions · checked 13 October 2026

The programme cannot simply advertise it

Ofcom’s Broadcasting Code bars the promotion of products in programmes. Its exception is “programme-related material”: products “directly derived from a programme and specifically intended to allow viewers to benefit fully from, or to interact with, that programme”. They may be promoted only during or around that programme, and only where it is editorially justified. Ofcom’s guidance adds that material which is not editorial needs a stronger justification, and that a mention is likely to count as product placement if the broadcaster takes a share of the sales.

Official sourceRules 9.4 and 9.31 of the code; paragraph 1.245 and question 10 of the guidance notes. · Source: Ofcom Broadcasting Code, Section nine: Commercial references on TV, Ofcom, Guidance notes on section nine · checked 13 October 2026

A tee is not a companion podcast. So we plan as if the programme will say nothing, and reach viewers where they already talk about the show: its own accounts, the cast’s if they choose, and advertising that we pay for.

A licence, or a store of your own

The usual route for a show is licensing: a manufacturer pays for the right to make the goods, and a retailer sells them. It is a large business.

$389.8bnLicensed merchandise and services sold worldwide in 2025

$161.8bnOf that, character and entertainment

33%Of that category’s licensing revenue, from films and television

Official sourceThe trade body’s release of 19 May 2026 on its 2026 study. · Source: Licensing International, 2026 Global Licensing Industry Study · checked 13 October 2026

It is built for properties that can fill a shelf. One trade handbook puts the royalty on entertainment merchandise at 10 to 12% of the wholesale price, with an advance and a minimum guarantee, and a retailer writing in it describes planning ranges nine months ahead. A licensee takes that on for a show it expects to sell in volume.

Third-party estimateA trade fair’s guide for new licensees, published in 2019. · Source: Brand Licensing Europe, The Brand Licensing Handbook · checked 13 October 2026

Most shows are not that, and still have viewers who would buy. A store of the show’s own needs no licensee, no guarantee and no nine months. Even the largest names hand the running of a store to a specialist: the BBC Shop and the Netflix Shop both name Snow Commerce as the seller, and the ITV Shop is operated by Event Merchandising.

Filed or disclosedSource: BBC Shop, Terms of use, Netflix Shop, Terms of service, ITV Shop, Terms and conditions · checked 13 October 2026

The money

Nothing up front. There is no fee, no retainer and no minimum order, and no stock for the production to buy. We pay for the design, the store and the advertising, and we are paid a share of the profit on the range. The split is put in writing before you sign, and how we get paid sets out what counts as profit.

The broadcaster’s share

If the show was commissioned under a broadcaster’s terms, the broadcaster is owed a share of what the production earns from merchandise. It is worked out on what the production receives, so it sits between you and the broadcaster. Bring the clause to the first call, because it changes what the range has to earn for you.

Questions

How do we find out whether we hold the merchandising rights?

Read the commissioning agreement, starting with its schedule of rights. Look for “merchandising”, and for “secondary”, “ancillary” or “consumer products” rights, and see which side keeps them. Under the public service broadcasters’ terms it is normally the producer.

If the rights are with the commissioner or a format owner, the range needs their agreement before it needs a design. Tell us who holds them on the first call.

Can the cast be on the products?

Only with each performer’s written consent. The Pact and Equity television agreement makes the use of an artist’s photograph, name or likeness “in connection with the merchandising of other commercial goods” subject to the artist’s consent, in the engagement or another written agreement.

Official sourceClause T46 of the agreement, as updated in September 2021. · Source: Pact and Equity, Television Agreement · checked 13 October 2026

So the first range starts from the show itself: its title, its lettering and its set. A face joins it when its owner has agreed.

What happens between series, or if the show is not recommissioned?

Nothing has to be cleared. Online orders are printed after they are placed, so the store holds no stock, and it stays open for the people who find the show later. When a new series is announced the range is added to, and released as the episodes go out.

If the show ends, the store, the artwork and the customer list are yours to keep.

The first episode is a few weeks away; is it too late?

Not for the store. Nothing has to be manufactured ahead, so what takes the time is the artwork and your approval. If the episodes are finished and the rights are clear, the first pieces can be ready for the first episode.

What cannot be hurried is a rights question. If the contract is silent on merchandise, ask the broadcaster now.