YEAR IN REVIEW
2019-2020
KEY HIGHLIGHTS
• Driven by huge growth outside of the pandemic, then
extraordinary growth in educational usage during the
pandemic, 3.5 million usage records came into our
system in 2019/20 – with those from the Australian
Educational Service licence up 143%
• A record $46.5 million was distributed to Screenrights
members in 2019/20
• Membership grew by 6.1% to total 4,709 members
from 69 countries around the world
• Our Film & TV Disbursements service collected
$5.4 million on behalf of members, up 84% on the
previous year
Image Credits:
Front cover:
In My Blood It Runs -
Closer Productions, Photo Maya Newell
Opposite:
Mystify -
Ghost Pictures
In My Blood It Runs -
Closer Productions, Photo Maya Newell
Relic
- Carver Films
Miss Fisher and the Crypt of Tears
- Every Cloud Productions
MESSAGE FROM THE SCREENRIGHTS CHAIR
I would like to thank former Chair Jill Bryant for her
leadership up until the end of 2019. Jill chaired the
Screenrights Board for thirteen years, and on behalf
of the Board and the membership I would like to
express my appreciation for her significant contribution
to the organisation.
My thanks also to my fellow Board Directors, CEO James
Dickinson and the Screenrights team, and our members
and licensees, for working with us over a very challenging
period this financial year, to the great benefit of both the
screen industry and education sector.
When I was elected Chair of the Screenrights Board in
November 2019, I was very much looking forward to what
2020 would bring as we celebrated the Society’s 30th
anniversary. And while a formal gathering is now off the
table, the year has shown us in many unexpected ways
how important Screenrights’ work is, heading into its
fourth decade of existence.
During these 30 years, Screenrights has distributed over
$588 million to our members around the world. And it has
perhaps never been a more important revenue stream for
screen content creators than this year.
Kim Dalton Chair
This is my first annual report to the membership of Screenrights since taking on the role of Chair.
It is an honour to take on the role and to be able to support the very important work of Screenrights.
Educators have been using Screenrights educational licences
and member content via the resource centres like never before,
as institutions have had to shift to online teaching methods.
Educators have been using Screenrights
educational licences and member content
via the resource centres like never before,
as institutions have had to adapt to online
teaching methods. Shifts to home learning
have proven the ongoing educational value of
easily streamable video content. Meanwhile,
creators have seen their productions put
on hold, and in response Screenrights staff
pushed hard to get their secondary royalties
out to them as soon as possible and ahead of
the regular distribution periods.
As all this work was happening, in the
2019/20 financial year, Screenrights had
its largest increase in members ever.
Membership grew 6.1% to now total 4,709
members from 69 countries around the
world, as of June 2020.
The third year of the Screenrights Cultural
Fund saw our highest number of applicants
yet, with the focus on New Voices striking
a chord with many exciting projects in
Australia and New Zealand. We continue to
be impressed with the incredible initiatives
that come across the assessors’ desks, and
excited to see the impact they’ll have down
the line.
Once again the organisation has remained
fully compliant with the voluntary Code of
Conduct for Collecting Societies in Australia,
and has met its standards in the latest
independent annual review.
The Board has met the governance and
strategic challenges presented by COVID-19,
and the staff has our appreciation for their
hard work to ensure that members have not
been disadvantaged by the pandemic when it
comes to their secondary royalties. We hope
that the next financial year will be smoother
sailing for members and educators alike.
Kim Dalton
Screenrights Chair
25 September 2020
Image Credits:
Family Rules -
Metamorflix |
Have You Seen the Listers -
Carver Films
MESSAGE FROM THE CHIEF EXECUTIVE
As Kim mentioned, in the wake of the coronavirus
pandemic Screenrights staff shifted our focus and
worked hard (mostly from home) to get any funds paid
out as quickly as possible to members, fast-tracking the
usual payment runs. We were very pleased to be able
to do so in such a precarious period for so many in the
screen industry.
At the same time, the value of Screenrights’ licences to
educators was plain to see, with usage records of screen
content climbing exponentially this financial year to
almost 3.5 million, up from 1.25 million in 2018/19. The
online resource centres, hosting extensive archives
covering decades of broadcast programming and curated
to align with curricula, proved an asset in this phase of
increased remote learning.
Putting aside the outlier impacts of the pandemic, usage
of resource centre content – and with it the Screenrights
educational licence – has been increasing at an
accelerating pace year-on-year. Screenrights is pleased
that our members’ content provides such a great support
to educators across Australia and New Zealand.
Our 30th anniversary also saw our largest ever increase in
membership, and we have our first members from Bosnia
and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, and Nigeria. We welcome all
new members, and Screenrights will continue to work
hard to locate and distribute all royalties due to you.
It’s been quite a year. There’s no way to report on FY2019/20 without recognising up front the huge
challenges the pandemic has brought to both Screenrights members, who create the screen content that
has seen us through some tough months; and licensees, particularly educators, who have been tasked
with teaching in new and innovative ways.
Our 30th anniversary also saw our largest ever increase
in membership, and we have our first members from
Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, and Nigeria.
James Dickinson Chief Executive
As for the big picture: in 2019/20 Screenrights
distributed a record $46.5 million to
members, up from $40.9 million last year.
Our Disbursements service collected
$5.4 million on behalf of our clients this
financial year, up from $2.9 million in
2018/19, while our International service
collected $1.9 million on behalf of members,
up from $1.3 million last year.
Whilst the third year of the Screenrights
Cultural Fund has seen the highest number
of applications yet, those awarded during the
Fund’s second year fell into 2019/20.
The successful applicants included a
schools workshop program around refugees
in transit in Indonesia; online, interactive
resource portal DocAccess; the Through Our
Lens indigenous youth peer-to-peer Maori
filmmaker workshop initiative; and Film
Outreach Australia’s audience development
project for regional venues. All of these have
faced setbacks and delays resulting from the
pandemic, but have plans in place to deliver
on their aims, and we look forward to seeing
their fantastic work come to fruition in the
coming months.
It remains a challenging time for everyone,
our staff, our members and our licensees. I
am so proud of the contribution Screenrights
is making in response to these extraordinary
times, which has been further justification if it
was needed of the importance of the statutory
licences that the Government entrusts us to
administer.
Hopefully, in the next 12 months we’ll be
looking forward to a happier future.
If you’d like to get into further financial detail,
you can find more in our Annual Report.
James Dickinson,
Chief Executive
25 September 2020
Image Credits:
Babyteeth -
Whitefalk Films
No Time for Quiet -
Film Camp
The Secrets She Keeps
- Lingo Pictures, Photo John Platt
DISTRIBUTION
In 2019/20, the new money for distribution to members was a record $45.8 million.
FIGURE 2 Amount distributed to members each year 2010/11 to 2019/20, and
breakdown by type of member for the past three years
All members
Australian members
Australian collecting society members
New Zealand members
International members
$34.9 $38.6 $43.1 $43.1$30.8 $32.2 $34.9 $42.8 $40.9
$46.5m
$21.5
$4.1
$14.8
$0.5
$20.6
$4.6
$17.0
$0.6
$3.4m
$16.6m
$26.0m
$0.5m
FIGURE 1 Total funds available for distribution to members, by type of licence,
2017/18 to 2019/20
Australian Educational Service (AES)
Australian Retransmission Service (ARS)
Australian Government Service (AGS)
NZ Educational Service (NZES)
International Collections Service (ICS)
Disbursements by Screenrights (DASA)
$42.13m $43.50m
2019/202017/18 2018/19
27.8m
7.9m
1.5m
2.0m
1.4m
2.9m
28.5m
6.8m
1.0m
2.1m
1.9m
5.4m
26.9m
8.1m
1.4m
1.9m
1.7m
2.1m
$45.80m
In 2019/20, we distributed a record $46.5m to our members.
More money available and more distributed than ever before
2018/19
2010/11
2011/12
2012/13
2013/14
2014/15
2015/16
2016/17
2017/18
2019/20
FIGURE 3 Membership numbers 2010/11 to 2019/20, and breakdown by member type
for current year
2019/20 saw our largest ever increase in members, with membership growing 6.1% to total 4,709 members from 69 countries as of June 2020.
Our database now holds over 1.3 million active registrations of members’ rights in programs.
Australian
members 2,443
New Zealand
members 424
International
members 1,842
Image Credits:
Wild Butterfly -
Inavision Films & Artemis Media |
Upright -
Lingo Pictures, Photo Mark Rogers
MEMBERSHIP
Record growth of new Screenrights members
FIGURE 4 Geographical distribution of Screenrights members
Countries with Screenrights members
2018/19
2010/11
2011/12
2012/13
2013/14
2014/15
2015/16
2016/17
2017/18
2019/20
3,560 3,693 3,821 3,9573,321 3,464 4,107 4,227
4,709
4,438
Continuing an acceleration of exponential growth in prior years, which in addition
has doubled due to the pandemic, Screenrights processed an unprecedented 3.49m
usage records in 2019/20.
FIGURE 7 Total number of usage records tracked over the last 3 years, by licence type
On behalf of our members, in 2019/20 Screenrights extended our agreement with the
Australian Government. Our retransmission agreement with Foxtel expired at the end
of 2019, and we were unable to reach an agreement on the equitable remuneration for
retransmission of the free-to-air channels. We are therefore seeking a determination
from the Copyright Tribunal. All other licence agreements remained in place.
FIGURE 5 Revenue from licences and other collection services (including interest), total
and by service type, 2017/18 to 2019/20
2018/19 2019/202017/18
$53.4m
$49.5m $51.2m
34m
7.9m
1.2m
2.6m
2.1m
5.6m
32.0m
9.6m
1.6m
2.3m
1.9m
2.1m
33.2m
9.3m
1.6m
2.5m
1.5m
3.1m
Australian Educational Service (AES)
Australian Retransmission Service (ARS)
Australian Government Service (AGS)
NZ Educational Service (NZES)
International Collections Service (ICS)
Disbursements by Screenrights (DASA)
FIGURE 6 Revenue from licences each year 2017/18-2019/20
$44.6m
2019/20
$44.0m
2017/18
$45.1m
2018/19
LICENCES
Exponential growth in the use of members’ content
Australian Educational Service (AES)
Australian Retransmission Service (ARS)
Australian Government Service (AGS)
NZ Educational Service (NZES)
Predicted usage records pre-pandemic
2019/20
2017/18 2018/19
3,036,087
180,710
24,468
252,742
825,000
183,991
24,369
203,849
3,494,007m
1,237,209m
Image Credit:
Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries
- Every Cloud Productions
1,249,399
177,246
35,082
175,977
1,637,704m
2.27m
More detail on the content used by licensees
For the first time, in 2019/20 Feature Film was the most accessed content type by
educational institutions. Non-fiction categories (Factual, Documentary, News &
Current Affairs) together represented 48.7% of content accessed by educators.
LICENCES cont
FIGURE 8 Share of copies made for different types of content at Australian
Educational Institutions
Image Credits:
Mystify -
Ghost Pictures |
Relic -
Carver Films |
Have You Seen the Listers
- Carver Films
Feature Film 19.71%
Factual 19.03%
Documentary 16.60%
News & Current
Affairs 13.07%
Drama Series 6.82%
Children's Series
5.85%
Light Entertainment
4.58%
Comedy Series 3.69%
Dedicated
Educational 2.40%
Reality Television
2.13%
Mini-Series/
Telemovie 1.74%
S h o r t 1.50%
O t h e r 2.88%
FIGURE 10 Territories in which Screenrights International collects income on behalf
of our members
Currently collecting
Our Disbursements service continues to grow, and we collected $5.4 million on behalf of members in 2019/20, up from $2.9 million the previous year. Our International service
continued to actively negotiate territories in which we collect for our members, and 2019/20 collections grew to $1.9 million, up from $1.3 million in 2018/19.
SERVICES
Disbursements service collections up 84%, International up 46%
FIGURE 9 Total collections through our Disbursements service 2017/18 to 2019/20
$5,401,000
2019/20
$2,132,000
2017/18
$2,940,000
2018/19
INSIGHT: 2019/20 included our International service’s first ever
collections from selected French channels in Madagascar and Haiti
FIGURE 11 Screenrights International 2019/20 collections breakdown by territory
Germany
Netherlands
Canada
Denmark
Belgium
Switzerland
France
Sweden
Other countries
$1.9
million
Working hard to minimise our costs
FIGURE 13 Overall expenditure to collections ratio, 2017/18 to 2019/20
16.2%
2018/19
15.9%
2017/18
FIGURE 12 Breakdown of Expenditure for 2019/20
Screenrights’ total expenditure amounted to 15.9% of total collections in 2019/20,
which is slightly lower than 2018/19 and level with 2017/18.
EXPENDITURE
NZ $122,000
Licensing $60,000
Operating Expenses $2,590,000
Promotions/Marketing $245,000
Legal $114,000
Travel $64,000
Other $61,000
Employee Related $5,566,000
$8.82
million
15.9%
2019/20
Image Credit:
No Time for Quiet
- Film Camp |
I
n My Blood It Runs
- Closer Productions, Photo Maya Newell
SCREEN INDUSTRY SUPPORT
At this time of crisis, the greatest support Screenrights can offer our
members is to make sure we collect and distribute royalties as quickly
as possible. In addition, we continue to advocate for our members’ rights
in support of a vibrant screen industry.
2019/20 Submissions included:
Supporting Australian stories on our screens
Response to ACCC Mandatory News Media Bargaining Code Concepts Paper
Response to the Consultation Paper on the Review of the Alston Determination
Final Report of the Digital Platforms Inquiry
And the Screenrights Cultural Fund continued into its second year of funding.
The 2019 Cultural Fund
supported some fantastic initiatives:
Light Sound Art Film
– for The Staging Post Education Project schools workshop program;
Documentary Australia Foundation
– for DocAccess, an online, interactive portal providing
educational resources to filmmakers, communities and individuals;
Maoriland Charitable Trust
– for Through Our Lens, an indigenous youth peer-to-peer
workshop and networking initiative; and
Film Outreach Australia
– to deliver strategies and tools to regional venues and presenters,
helping them to develop new screen audiences.
Image Credits:
Family Rules
- Metamorflix
Babyteeth -
Whitefalk Films
Upright -
Lingo Pictures, Photo Mark Rogers
