Franchise

Franchise generally means a right or privilege. It may refer to:

• Suffrage, the civil right to vote
• Jurisdictions used to be treated as property rights, and could be referred to as franchises.
• Franchising, a business method that involves licensing of trademarks and methods of doing business, such as:
  • Chain store, retail outlets which share a brand and central management
  • An exclusive right, for example to sell branded merchandise
  • Media franchise, ownership of the characters and setting of a film, video game, book, etc., particularly in North American usage
  • Rail franchising in Great Britain
• A television franchise, a right to operate a television network.
  • A cable franchise, a right to operate a cable television network.
• a clause used by insurance companies as a threshold for policy payments, as in deductible
• "Franchise" (short story), a 1955 short story by Isaac Asimov
• Dem Franchize Boyz, an American hip hop group from Atlanta
• Franchise Pictures, a film production company

In sport:

• Franchise, a term for a team in the type of professional sports league organization most commonly found in North America; see North American professional sports league organization
  • Franchise player, a player on such a team around whom an entire competitive squad can be built
  • Franchise tag, a designation of a player in the US National Football League whose contract is soon to expire that binds him to the team for one year at an enhanced salary
• League franchise, a local or regional business franchising operation under a particular sporting league in activities such as pool, darts, etc.