I work in Hollywood and this is or true. We do not have to pay to have buildings in the background. Nor does TV. How would anything be filmed outside if news crews had to pay fees for filming like that? I have made films in NY, London, Paris, Sydney. We can shoot someone walking through a city as long as we have permits for the space. The skyline is free. As is anything else we capture from space we have rights to.
Worst of all is of course space documentaries, where you can see the whole Earth. The licensing fees are horrendous.