I suppose expiration of the music in the Open All Hours ep does make more sense. Still, it is sad they do this, and I’m sure they could retain it if they paid it, but they want to.
They have to justify the cost and if the licence is considered unduly expensive, it cannot be justified and so the music will be substituted with a cheaper alternative or even removed and the scene left without music - as happened with an episode of Bad Girls, where the characters are seen dancing to a track that is no longer present. 😄
Speaking of Heartbeat again, but when the latter series was shown on repeat viewings on itv3, I believe they changed some of the music there as well, not necessarily Beatles music as such but just a random 60s song. So even on repeat showings on an ITV channel you still can’t watch it as it was originally shown. Why have the rights for music when first broadcast, yet change the music on repeated showings on what is essentially the same channel?. Unless, as suggested above, it is because the licence has expired?. If music rights was such an issue, particularly with a show like Heartbeat, I’m surprised there was any original music left intact.
The licence(s) were very likely negotiated for the immediate broadcast run and then would need to be renegotiated for rebroadcasts and home video. When many of the licences were arranged for older content, home video hadn’t been factored into the equation. Also, some record companies, executives and artists are easier to negotiate with than others. Don Henley and Eric Clapton allowed their songs to be used for free on an independently made documentary because the film-makers couldn’t hope to afford the licence fees and they’d sympathised with their goal. However, that incident is an exception rather than the norm and almost certainly would not occur with a TV series that was produced by a major organsiation.
I would love to convert the episodes I have convert them to digital for archive, but if put on the internet they’ll just be removed. I’ve seen dozens of shows uploaded to youtube, yet neither the copyright holder nor YouTube seem to have an issue. It seems to me that it’s only certain shows which people regarded as popular (ie Fools and Horses) - and influential? they are so keen on altering. I’ve seen plenty of Heartbeat eps on YT, lots of Open All Hours, Summer Wine, Red Dwarf, etc which they don’t seem bothered about, yet try uploading an ep of OFAH in full and it’s promptly removed.
Share them via a torrent. Much better. 😉