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Music licensing likely keeping SNL's 'Game of Thrones' sketch off Hulu

Music licensing likely keeping SNL's 'Game of Thrones' sketch off Hulu

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Music licensing is likely the reason SNL's popular Game of Thrones sketch hasn't shown up on Hulu or NBC.com.

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game of thrones snl

Despite huge popularity on Facebook and Twitter, SNL's hilarious look at the writing process behind HBO's Game of Thrones series still hasn't shown up on Hulu or NBC.com. The likely reason? Music licensing for the show's soundtrack. Splitsider theorizes that NBC avoids posting sketches with licensed music online in order to avoid additional fees and complications. NBC has to pay licensing fees for the songs it airs, and the rules differ depending on whether a song is featured on a TV broadcast or in an online video. For a typical broadcast, licensees only need the right to the musical work, but to play the same song on the internet, NBC would need to secure the right to the sound recording as well.

We think the idea that NBC is just trying to avoid extra fees and legal headaches makes more sense than the suggestion it's having trouble getting the rights cleared. In any case, if you haven't seen the video yet, you should head over to Gawker — they still have it up, licensing be damned.