Key Highlights ................................................................. 2
Message from the Screenrights Chair ............................. 3
Message from the Chief Executive ................................... 5
Distribution ..................................................................... 7
Membership .................................................................... 8
Licences .......................................................................... 9
Licence Usage Data ....................................................... 10
Services ........................................................................ 11
Expenditure ................................................................... 12
Innovation to Manage Big Data ...................................... 13
Screen Industry Support ............................................... 14
Front cover: [L-R]
Dive Club - The Steve Jaggi Company
The Newsreader - Werner Film Productions
Anonymous Club - Film Camp, Photo Danny Cohen
Girl’s Can’t Surf - Pursekey Productions
CONTENTS
SCREENRIGHTS YEAR IN REVIEW 2021–2022 | 2
KEY HIGHLIGHTS
• A record $49.7 million was available for distribution to
Screenrights members, and $45.9 million was distributed
in 2021/22
• More members received Screenrights royalties than ever before,
up 18.6% on the previous year
• Screenrights’ revenue from licences and other collection
services was a record $53.8 million
• Usage of the Australian Educational Licence continued on its
growth trajectory even after the end of pandemic lockdowns, with
usage records up 6.2% on the previous year
• Our Disbursements service once again achieved a record year
to total $6.5 million in collections on behalf of our clients
Image Credits:
Fires - Tony Ayres Productions , Photo Narelle Portanier | Australia’s Biggest Sing along - Artemis Media |
[Bottom L+R] Girl’s Can’t Surf - Pursekey Productionss
3 | SCREENRIGHTS YEAR IN REVIEW 2021–2022
MESSAGE FROM THE SCREENRIGHTS CHAIR
Remote learning necessitated by the pandemic
proved the value of our members’ content to
educators, but since students have returned to
in-person learning the usage of broadcast
programs remains high. In partnership with the
resource centres, making sure that students and
teachers can access educational programs in ways
that best support their needs has meant this growth
has continued apace.
The success of the Screenrights Educational
Licence in providing access and equity to students
and teachers across Australia confirms how well
the copyright licences have worked throughout the
pandemic. Supporting the integrity of copyright in
a fast changing digital environment and supporting
our members’ right to fair compensation for the
usage of their programs remains a fundamental
objective for Screenrights.
In assessing the Copyright Amendment (Access
Reform) Exposure Draft Bill 2021, Screenrights
worked with the former Federal Government,
stakeholders across the industry and the users of
copyright, to find common ground. In identifying
problems and possible improvements, our
approach has always been to identify solutions that
address genuine problems while protecting our
members’ rights in their work. Our commitment
to support our members and licensees in
positive copyright reform continues with the new
Government.
Screenrights is always looking at where we can
advocate on behalf of our members, but also at
how we can constructively address the concerns
of other stakeholders. We look forward to working
with the new Government and new Parliament to
address policy issues in ways that benefit us all.
Kim Dalton, Screenrights Chair
27 October 2022
Kim Dalton Chair
Over the 2021/22 financial year, Screenrights has continued to see strong growth in the
use of our Educational Licence.
SCREENRIGHTS YEAR IN REVIEW 2021–2022 | 4
Supporting the integrity of
copyright in a fast changing
digital environment and
supporting our members’
right to fair compensation for
the usage of their programs
remains a fundamental
objective for Screenrights.
Image Credits:
Anonymous Club - Film Camp, Photo Danny Cohen | The Newsreader - Werner Film Productions |
Christmas on the Farm - Hoodlum Productions, Photos Scott Belzner
5 | SCREENRIGHTS YEAR IN REVIEW 2021–2022
And once again, we saw a record year in usage
records for the Screenrights Educational Licence,
demonstrating without doubt its ongoing value to
teachers and students.
To match the increase in usage, more Screenrights
members received royalties last nancial year than
ever before, and by 30 June we were sitting at a total
of 4,996 members.
Revenue from our licences and other collection services
also hit a record over the nancial year, coming in at
$53.8 million. Some of this was due to reaching an
agreement with Foxtel on the equitable remuneration
of retransmission of the broadcast channels.
Having taken the issue to the Copyright Tribunal, we
were pleased to reach a ve year deal with Foxtel,
which saw retransmission royalties dating back to January
2020 come in for distribution to our members. However,
over the longer term, the value of retransmission from
pay television may fall as satellite and cable services
are replaced by internet streaming. We are keeping a
watching brief on this and other fast-moving changes
that are impacting our industry.
Screenrights’ Disbursements service saw a record year in
collections, bringing in almost $6.5 million on behalf of
our clients. Our Royalties (World) service fell in collections
last nancial year due to ongoing litigation and delayed
negotiations by partner collecting societies in some
overseas territories. Over time this is expected to recover
and keep growing.
We also brought our Expenses to Collections ratio down
to 15% as we worked to minimise our costs, despite
the cost of litigation proceedings which were ultimately
settled. Whilst litigation is never our preference, we’ll
never hesitate to ght for our members’ rights to fair
remuneration for the use of their programs.
The fth year of the Screenrights Cultural Fund awarded
funding of $249,600 to seven initiatives meeting the
annual focus of ‘New Teams’. 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.
You can nd more nancial detail in our Annual Report.
James Dickinson, Chief Executive
27 October 2022
FY2021/22 saw a return to business-as-usual for Screenrights, if there is such a thing in these
times. We were pleased to see another record year in terms of the new money available for
distribution to our members, at $49.7 million.
MESSAGE FROM THE CHIEF EXECUTIVE
James Dickinson Chief Executive
SCREENRIGHTS YEAR IN REVIEW 2021–2022 | 6
Image Credits:
Catalyst – Mars: Our Second Home? - Australian Broadcasting Corporation
The Family Court Murders - Media Stockade and Said & Done
Fires - Tony Ayres Productions, Photos [L] Narelle Portanier, [R] Ben King
Once again, we saw a record
year in usage records for
the Screenrights Educational
Licence, demonstrating
without doubt its
ongoing value to teachers
and students.
7 | SCREENRIGHTS YEAR IN REVIEW 2021–2022
DISTRIBUTION
In 2021/22, the new money for distribution to members was a record $49.7 million.
FIGURE 1 Total funds available for distribution to members, by type of licence,
2019/20 to 2021/22
Australian Educational Service [AES]
Australian Retransmission Service [ARS]
Australian Government Service [AGS]
NZ Educational Service [NZES]
International Collections Service [ICS]
Disbursements Service [DASA]
$49.7m
$45.8m
2020/21 2021/222019/20
$47.6m
Continued strong collections and payments to our members
FIGURE 2 Amount distributed to members each year 2019/20 to 2021/22, and breakdown
by type of member
Australian members
Australian collecting society members
New Zealand members
International members
$46.5 $45.3 $45.9m
In 2021/22, we distributed $45.9 million to our members.
2021/222019/20 2020/21
$ 26.0
$ 3.4
$ 0.5
$ 16.6
$ 21.5
$ 4.2
$ 0.5
$ 19.1
$20.6
$ 3.5
$ 0.4
$ 21.4
28.5m
6.8m
1.0m
2.1m
1.9m
5.4m
30.1m
6.3m
1.1m
2.3m
2.0m
5.8m
30.8m
7.5m
1.1m
2.4m
1.4m
6.5m
SCREENRIGHTS YEAR IN REVIEW 2021–2022 | 8
2021/22 saw our membership grow 4.1%, to total 4996 members from 72 countries as of June 2022. Our database now holds over 1.45 million active registrations of members’ rights
in programs.
Image Credits: Four Corners - Crisis in Kakadu - Australian Broadcasting Corporation | Catalyst - Mars: Our Second Home? - Australian Broadcasting Corporation
MEMBERSHIP
Paying more members than ever before
FIGURE 4 Membership numbers 2019/20 to 2021/22, and breakdown by member type
2020/212019/20
4,8974,709 4,996
Australian members
New Zealand members
International members
2021/22
FIGURE 3 Number of members receiving secondary royalty payments, 2019/20 to 2021/22
2020/21
2019/20
2021/22
1,437
1,395
1,705
2,632
414
1,950
2,542
442
1,913
2,443
424
1,842
9 | SCREENRIGHTS YEAR IN REVIEW 2021–2022
On behalf of our members, in 2021/22 Screenrights reached an agreement with Foxtel on a five year deal for
the retransmission licence fee. As a result of the agreement, royalties owing to our members since January
2020 were released, which meant a record year for licence revenue in FY2021/22.
FIGURE 5 Revenue from licences and other collection services [including interest], total and by service type,
2019/20 to 2021/22
2020/21
2021/22
2019/20
$ 53.8m$53.4m $52.4m
34.9m
8.3m
1.2m
2.6m
1.5m
5.3m
34.0m
7.9m
1.2m
2.6m
2.1m
5.6m
34.1m
6.4m
1.1m
2.5m
2.3m
6.0m
Australian Educational Service [AES]
Australian Retransmission Service [ARS]
Australian Government Service [AGS]
NZ Educational Service [NZES]
International Collections Service [ICS]
Disbursements Service [DASA]
FIGURE 6 Revenue from licences each year 2019/20 to 2021/22
LICENCES
Continued growth under Screenrights’ licences
Image Credits:
Catching the Claremont Killer: The Untold Story - Sky
News Australia | Anonymous Club
-
Film Camp,
Photo Danny Cohen | Catalyst – Are We Killing Our
Koalas? - Australian Broadcasting Corporation
$47.2m
$43.9m
2021/22
$44.6m
2019/20
2020/21
SCREENRIGHTS YEAR IN REVIEW 2021–2022 | 10
Feature Film 29%
Documentary 19%
Factual 16%
News & Current Affairs 8%
Children’s Series 8%
Drama Series 3%
Dedicated Educational 5%
Light Entertainment 3%
Comedy Series 2%
Short 2%
Mini-Series/Telemovie 2%
Reality Television 1%
Other 2%
Continued growth in the use of our educational licences
LICENCE USAGE DATA
FIGURE 8 Share of copies made for different types of content at Australian
Educational Institutions
Usage of the Australian Educational Licence continued on its growth trajectory, up 6.2% on 2020/21, confirming the continued importance of the licence to the Australian education sector.
For the third year running, Feature Film was the most accessed content type by Australian educational institutions, though non-fiction categories (Documentary, Factual, News & Current
Affairs) together represented 43% of content accessed by educators.
FIGURE 7 Total number of raw usage records for the Australian Educational Licence,
2019/20 to 2021/22
2021/22
2019/20 2020/21
18,861,37112,021,339 17,74 4,202
11 | SCREENRIGHTS YEAR IN REVIEW 2021–2022
Screenrights’ Disbursements service saw another record year of collections, while the Royalties (World) service saw a decrease from last year due to accelerated payments by other
collecting societies in FY2020/21 as well as ongoing negotiations and some litigation in Europe. Our Residuals service continues to develop alongside other new initiatives.
SERVICES
Finding more ways to support our members
FIGURE 9 Total collections through our Disbursements service 2016/17 to 2021/22
$6,485,000
$5,401,000
$5,800,000
FIGURE 10 Screenrights Royalties [World] 2021/22 collections breakdown by territory
2020/21
2016/17
2017/18
2018/19
2019/20
2021/22
$ 580,000
$2,940,000
$2,132,000
Germany
Netherlands
Canada
France
Switzerland
Finland
Denmark
Norway
Ireland
Israel
Other Countries
$1.44
million
Image Credit: Christmas on the Farm - Hoodlum Productions, Photos Scott Belzner
SCREENRIGHTS YEAR IN REVIEW 2021–2022 | 12
Minimising our costs wherever possible
FIGURE 12 Overall expenditure to collections ratio, 2019/20 to 2021/22FIGURE 11 Breakdown of Expenditure for 2021/22
EXPENDITURE
Legal $ 139,000
Promotions/ Marketing $ 127,000
Other $1,188,000
Information Technology $ 226,000
Operating Expenses $ 750,000
Travel $ 17,000
Licensing $ 461,000
Employee Related $4,743,000
$7.65
million
15.9%
2019/20
Image Credits: The Family Court Murders - Media Stockade and Said & Done | The Newsreader - Werner Film Productions
16.0%
2020/21
In 2021/22, Screenrights brought our Expenses to Collections ratio back down to 15%. Resolving litigation proceedings and coming to agreement on equitable remuneration for the
retransmission of broadcast channels in Australia helped to bring this number down.
15.0%
2021/22
SCREENRIGHTS YEAR IN REVIEW 2021–2022 | 13
FIGURE 13 NZ Broadcast data processing, annual comparison
We’re constantly seeking better ways of working with data, to improve the speed and accuracy of royalty
calculations and payments. Over the last year this has included a 196.95% reduction in the time it takes
our systems to process incoming data from NZ broadcasts.
Small things like this go towards improving our efficiency and keeping our costs down, but also help us
pay members as quickly and accurately as possible. Work continues in this area and we look forward to
members seeing further benefits soon.
INNOVATION TO MANAGE BIG DATA
Ongoing service improvements for members
and stakeholders
Image Credits:
Anonymous Club - Film Camp, Photo Danny Cohen | Christmas on the Farm - Hoodlum Productions, Photos Scott Belzner | The Newsreader - Werner Film Productions
Ingestion
Pipeline Process
Time
6.5
Hours
3
Minutes
JUNE 2021
JUNE 2022
14 | SCREENRIGHTS YEAR IN REVEIW 2021–2022
SCREEN INDUSTRY SUPPORT
Screenrights continued to advocate for our members’ rights in support of a vibrant
screen industry.
Copyright Amendment (Access Reform) Exposure Draft Bill 2021 – Submission by Screenrights
Productivity Commission Right to Repair Inquiry – Submission by Screenrights
The 2021 Screenrights Cultural Fund awarded $249,600 to 7 initiatives meeting the annual focus
of New Teams:
Sweetshop & Green for The New Pasifika Creators Accelerator Program;
Diversity Arts Australia for their capacity building program Equity, Inclusion and the Screen Sector;
Back to Back Theatre to partner with screen industry leaders to create a model for increased
employment opportunities for people with disability in the wider screen sector;
Co-Curious for their talent and career development program Stories From Another Australia;
Midnight Feast for an innovative training program teaming artists with physical and intellectual
disabilities with creatives from Jungle Entertainment and The Corinthian Food Store;
Media Farm for Impact Teams Lab, an initiative that brings together producers and storytellers,
researchers and subject matter experts, and people with lived experience, to form new teams to
tackle important societal problems through impactful screen content;
For Film’s Sake for Platform 2022, a three-day workshop intensive staged with Sydney Film Festival
to provide expert skill development that bridges the gap between creative and commercial elements
of screen production in the global market.
Image Credits:
Australia’s Biggest Singalong - Artemis Media
Dive Club - The Steve Jaggi Company
Girl’s Can’t Surf - Pursekey Productions
Screenrights
ACN: 003 912 310
Level 1, 140 Myrtle Street
Chippendale NSW Australia 2008
Email info@screenrights.org
screenrights.org
Australia
Phone +61 2 8038 1300
New Zealand
Freephone 0800 44 2348
