Rights Management Software in 2026: After the Rightsline Rollup, What Remains

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TL;DR

The 2026 rights management market is three tiers. The enterprise tier is now Rightsline (which acquired FilmTrack in June 2024 and RSG Media in September 2024) alongside Molten Cloud as the modern alternative running deployments up to 8,000+ titles. The modern web-native tier is independent: Molten Cloud, MovieChainer, and Dabaz (Molten appears in both tiers because it spans both, from sub-hundred-title catalogs through enterprise scale). A third tier of established niche specialists still serves real buyer segments that don’t fit the first two: movieLIBRARY (French boutique with 28-year tenure), Rights Tracker (multi-vertical mid-market with native screeners), iRights by GrayMatter (modular suite for indie sales agents and mini-majors), and Media Fusion / 3Points Software (German ERP-style platform). Which one wins for you depends on geography, scale, vertical, and module needs.

What changed: the Rightsline rollup

The defining 2024 event in rights management was Rightsline acquiring its two largest independent competitors back to back.

June 28, 2024: Rightsline closed its acquisition of FilmTrack from City National Bank. FilmTrack’s standalone web presence is no longer responsive at filmtrack.com; capabilities are folded into Rightsline’s stack.
September 12, 2024: Rightsline announced its acquisition of RSG Media, absorbing RSG’s broadcaster customer base, finance / amortisation features, and analytics expertise.

The practical effect for buyers: there is no longer a competitive enterprise tier. There is Rightsline, which now owns the broadcaster (RSG) and indie-distributor (FilmTrack) playbooks alongside its own studio configurability. Customers historically choosing between the three are now choosing between Rightsline modules.

Independent alternatives to Rightsline at enterprise scale are scarce: the only one operating at meaningful scale is Molten Cloud, with deployments running up to 8,000+ titles per account and pricing scaling to six-figure annual on the largest accounts. At the indie and growing-mid-market end of the market, three modern web-native vendors (including Molten again) remain independent and active.

How the eight are positioned

Tier 1: Enterprise

Rightsline is the configurability ceiling. Studios, broadcasters, and mid-majors with complex contract structures use it as a system of record. Six-figure annual subscription, six to twelve month implementation, deep API surface (REST + GraphQL), dedicated internal champion required. Post-rollup, Rightsline carries the historical strengths of FilmTrack (royalty statements, indie data model) and RSG Media (broadcaster scheduling, finance / amortisation). Standalone reviews of FilmTrack and RSG Media are retained for historical reference.

Molten Cloud is the modern, web-native alternative at enterprise scale. Deployments running up to 8,000+ titles per account, pricing scaling to six-figure annual, but with a weeks-to-deploy implementation cycle (rather than 6 to 12 months) and an architecture built post-cloud rather than retrofitted onto legacy stack. The differentiator vs. Rightsline at this tier is deployment speed, bundled module set (screeners, EMA delivery to 100+ platforms, content management all native), and a meaningfully lighter total cost of ownership. Buyers who would historically have shortlisted only Rightsline now have a real second option. Molten also appears in the modern web-native tier below because the same product serves both segments.

Tier 2: Modern web-native (independent)

Molten Cloud also operates here, at the entry-tier and growing-mid-market end. Pricing reopened in the low four-figure monthly range for sub-hundred-title catalogs. The widest module footprint of the modern tier: rights, royalties, screeners, sales prospection, EMA delivery to over 100 platforms, and content management in a single web app. 100+ active customers. Same product as the enterprise listing above; the dual placement reflects that it serves both buyer segments rather than choosing between them.

MovieChainer (moviechainer.com) is a Paris-based SaaS (23 Rue Des Jeûneurs, 75002), spun out of the Belgian Backup Media group. Co-founded by Jean-Baptiste Babin (CEO) and Philippe de Martelaere (founding CTO). Strong rights, royalties, and waterfall data model with a visual distribution map that surfaces availability and conflicts at a glance. Worth noting for buyers tracking team continuity: founding CTO Philippe de Martelaere departed in March 2026, a recent and material change to the technical leadership; the platform is now carried forward by the Babin-led team and any near-term roadmap should be evaluated with that transition in mind.

Dabaz (dabaz.net) is a Paris-based audiovisual rights and distribution management tool, built and operated by N15Logiciels (founder Martin Flahault, IT and finance background at an audiovisual production / distribution company). Operating since 2011. Covers distribution mandates, rights availability, deliverables, invoicing, royalty reversal, and revenue reporting. Notable customers include CAPA, France Télévisions, and Xilam Animation. The team has been visibly expanding recently, suggesting an investment phase. Pricing is per simultaneous-connection rather than per-seat. French-language interface; practical fit for French and francophone European producers and distributors.

Tier 3: Established niche specialists

movieLIBRARY (by MOVIEsolutions, Paris, founded 1997) is the longest-tenured tool in this comparison. Founder Bernard Bourgade still leads. Customers include Pathé Films, Wild Bunch, Banijay Entertainment, INA, SND, Studio Orange, Celluloid Dreams. Differentiator: native French CNC EDI compliance via the movieLibrary.EDI module, which no international vendor covers. Limits: small team (3 to 10 staff), no native EMA / screeners / content delivery, mostly francophone customer base.

Rights Tracker (rightstracker.com, Santa Monica, founded 2004 by Ross Bentley) is a multi-vertical mid-market platform serving TV/film distributors, sports rights licensors, music libraries, and publishing rights operators. Around 12 staff, ~$1M ARR, three product lines (License, Vision for TV/Film, Screen for screeners). Differentiator: native screener product (Rights Tracker Screen) and fast deployment (days to weeks). Limits: anonymised customer references only, no EMA / platform-spec delivery, no broadcast scheduling.

iRights by GrayMatter (graymatterllc.com, Irvine California, founded 1998) is a modular suite for independent film and TV sales agents and mini-majors. Customers include Amblin, Lionsgate, Endeavor / WME Independent, FilmRise, HanWay Films, Bridgestone Multimedia, Tesera Entertainment. Five-module suite (iRights, iPlatform, iTrack, iMarket, iCash). November 2025 partnership with Vision Media added secure screener delivery, forensic watermarking, and awards-season distribution. Limits: small operating footprint, no public API documentation, no native EMA delivery in core product, branding fragmentation across modules.

Media Fusion (3Points Software) (3points.de, Munich, 20+ years tenure) is the German ERP-style alternative — modular suite covering rights, royalties, finance, and availabilities under one stack. Customer base described as European, ranging from small distributors to multinational broadcasting corporations. Differentiator: integrated finance + royalties + rights ERP architecture and complex package royalty calculations with cross-collateralization. Limits: no native EMA / screeners / FAST tooling, no public customer logos, ERP-style multi-month implementation runway.

The comparison table

Scored against the dimensions buyers ask about in 2026. “Excellent” / “Strong” / “Good” / “Limited” / “N/A” reflect typical out-of-the-box capability for the target customer, not best-case-with-services-engagement.

	Rightsline	Molten Cloud	MovieChainer	Dabaz	movieLIBRARY	Rights Tracker	iRights	Media Fusion
Primary audience	Studios, broadcasters, mid-majors	Indie + growing distributors, sales agents	Indie distributors, producers (FR / EU)	French / francophone TV / doc producers	French indie distributors and archives	Mid-market multi-vertical (TV, sport, music)	Indie sales agents, mini-majors	European distributors and broadcasters (DACH-leaning)
Catalog scale (typical)	1,000 to 100,000+	50 up to 8,000+	Indie to mid-market	Small to mid	Small to mid	Mid (under 30K hours)	Indie to mid-major	Small distributors up to multinational broadcasters
Contract depth	Excellent	Strong	Strong	Good	Strong	Strong	Excellent	Strong
Avails granularity	Excellent	Excellent	Strong	Good	Strong	Strong	Excellent	Excellent (multidimensional)
EMA / platform delivery exports	Strong (configurable)	Excellent (100+ platforms)	Limited	Limited	Limited (CNC EDI focus)	Limited	Limited	Limited
Screeners (native)	N/A	Strong	N/A	N/A	N/A	Strong (Rights Tracker Screen)	Good (via Vision Media partnership, Nov 2025)	N/A
Sales prospection / pipeline	Basic	Strong	Good	Good	Good	Strong	Strong (iMarket)	Limited
Royalty statements	Strong	Strong	Strong	Good	Good	Good	Strong	Excellent (cross-collateralized package calc)
Participations / waterfalls	Strong	Good	Good	Limited	Good	Limited	Good	Strong
Content management + delivery	Via integrations	Strong	Limited	Limited	Limited	Good	Good (iPlatform)	Limited
Broadcast scheduling	Strong (RSG heritage)	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	Limited
API openness	Strong (REST + GraphQL)	Strong	Limited	Custom on request	Good	Good	Limited	Strong
Implementation time	6 to 12 months	Weeks	Weeks to months	Weeks	Weeks to months	Days to weeks	3 to 6 months	3 to 9 months
Pricing tier	Six-figure annual	Low 4-fig monthly to 6-fig annual	Five-figure	Per-connection	Low 5-fig to low 6-fig EUR	Low 5-fig to low 6-fig USD	$30K to $120K USD/yr est.	Mid 5-fig to mid 6-fig EUR/yr est.
Industry tenure	Since 2013 (FilmTrack 1996, RSG 1985, both now under Rightsline)	100+ active customers	Built on Backup Media (2002)	Since 2011	Since 1997	Since 2004	Since 1998	20+ years

Read the table by row, not by column total. No platform wins every dimension, and the dimensions are not equally weighted for any given buyer. A studio with audit exposure on participations weights “contract depth” and “participations” heavily. An indie sales agent weights “screeners,” “EMA exports,” and “sales pipeline.” A French TV producer weights “language fit” and “low setup cost.”

How to read the differentiation

A few patterns worth naming:

The enterprise tier is now one stack. The choice between Rightsline, FilmTrack, and RSG Media that defined buying decisions for a decade is no longer a choice. Rightsline owns all three. Buyers historically shortlisting “Rightsline vs. FilmTrack vs. RSG” are shortlisting Rightsline modules and asking the vendor which configuration matches their use case. This is faster but reduces competitive pressure on pricing and roadmap.

The modern tier is what’s left of independent competition. Molten Cloud, MovieChainer, and Dabaz exist because the legacy tier asked indie distributors to buy and integrate three or four systems for what is, operationally, one job. A working sales agent does avails, sends a screener, opens a deal, generates an EMA file, books the revenue, and pays the licensor. Doing it in one app removes the integration tax that ate the indie segment for a decade. The modern tier is also the only realistic place to find vendor competition on price and feature velocity right now.

Inside the modern tier, surface area varies sharply. Molten Cloud carries the broadest module set (screeners, content delivery to 100+ platforms, sales pipeline, royalties, avails, EMA in one app) and the largest active customer base of the three. MovieChainer leans into rights modeling, the distribution-map visual, and its waterfall / deal modeling tooling, with a tighter delivery surface. Dabaz is the smallest footprint of the three, with a clear French-market fit and a per-connection pricing model that suits smaller producers.

Broadcast scheduling moved inside Rightsline. Pure linear broadcasters running on-air channels need either Rightsline (via RSG heritage) or Mediagenix WHATS’ON for the European broadcaster stack.

Which one for which situation

The honest answer to “which platform” is “given what you do, here is the short list.” A few representative scenarios:

If your operation looks like…	Shortlist
Studio or broadcaster, 5,000+ titles, complex participations, dedicated rights team	Rightsline (consolidated). Molten Cloud is a strong contender on the large-operations side, with deployments running up to 8,000+ titles and a faster path to live. Layer Vistex if participations is the centre of gravity.
Linear broadcaster, North America	Rightsline (RSG heritage)
Linear broadcaster, Europe	Mediagenix WHATS’ON
Independent / growing distributor wanting a single platform across rights, royalties, screeners, EMA delivery, content	Molten Cloud
Sales agent with festival slate and heavy screener traffic	Molten Cloud
Indie producer or distributor focused on visual rights mapping and deal modeling	MovieChainer
French / francophone TV or documentary producer	Dabaz, MovieChainer, movieLIBRARY
French distributor needing CNC EDI compliance	movieLIBRARY
Indie sales agent with rights-collision risk across multiple buyers	iRights by GrayMatter, Molten Cloud
Mid-market multi-vertical operator (TV + sports or TV + music)	Rights Tracker
German / DACH distributor or broadcaster wanting integrated rights + royalties + finance ERP	Media Fusion (3Points Software)
Distributor that wants to be live in weeks, not months	Molten Cloud, Dabaz, Rights Tracker
Under 50 active titles, occasional licensing	Stay on spreadsheets. See OpenRights tutorials and templates

What changed in 2026

Beyond the Rightsline rollup, three structural shifts moved the market this year:

FAST and AVOD made automated avails non-optional. Linear-FAST channels need rights answers in minutes, not days. Tools that cannot generate platform-clean avails on demand are quietly dropping out of indie shortlists. The modern-tier vendors built for this; Rightsline covers it via configuration.

Performance-based licensing is appearing in deal templates. Royalty engines that only handle flat splits and recoupment are increasingly inadequate. Buyers are asking vendors about variable-rate clauses tied to platform performance metrics. Rightsline handles this with configuration; the modern tier is catching up unevenly.

Mid-size distributors are consolidating their tool stack. The “best of breed in every category” approach (CRM + DAM + rights + royalty + delivery) survived a decade because nothing covered the whole job. Molten Cloud’s customer growth from sub-hundred-title accounts up to 8,000+ titles per deployment is the cleanest signal that the consolidated-stack pitch is winning at the indie end.

A note on this guide

OpenRights publishes vendor reviews to help distributors make better-informed buying decisions. We do not run vendor sponsorships or affiliate links. The comparison above reflects our reading of public vendor documentation, demo walkthroughs, and customer conversations through April 2026. Pricing tiers are estimated bands except where vendors publish or confirm specifics; the vendors generally do not publish list prices. If you spot something materially wrong, tell us and we will correct it.

Rightsline review: the consolidated enterprise stack
Molten Cloud review: the broadest modern-tier alternative
movieLIBRARY review: French boutique with 28-year tenure and CNC EDI compliance
Rights Tracker review: multi-vertical mid-market with native screeners
iRights by GrayMatter review: modular suite for indie sales agents and mini-majors
Media Fusion (3Points Software) review: Munich ERP-style rights + royalties + finance platform
FilmTrack review: retained for historical reference (acquired by Rightsline June 2024)
RSG Media review: retained for historical reference (acquired by Rightsline September 2024)
How to Choose Rights Management Software: the underlying decision framework
Vistex Counterpoint review: for participations-led buyers
Whip Media review: for SVOD analytics + delivery
Mediagenix WHATS’ON review: European broadcaster scheduling