2022
2023
YEAR IN REVIEW
Key Highlights ................................................................. 2
Message from the Screenrights Chair ............................. 3
Message from the Chief Executive ................................... 5
Collections and Distributions .......................................... 8
Membership .................................................................... 9
Licence Usage Data ....................................................... 10
Industry Services .......................................................... 11
Expenditure ................................................................... 12
Digital Transformation .................................................. 13
Screen Industry Support ............................................... 14
Front cover: Image credits [L-R]
Franklin - Rock Island Bend Productions, Photo Francois Fourie
Barrumbi Kids – Ambience Entertainment & Tamarind Tree Pictures
Summer Love - Gristmill
Ablaze - Jotz Productions
CONTENTS
SCREENRIGHTS YEAR IN REVIEW 2022–2023 | 2
KEY HIGHLIGHTS
• Through our licence schemes, Screenrights distributed $40.3 million to our members,
the highest year of distributions on record
• Screenrights passed 5,000 members during the financial year
• Usage of the Australian Educational Licence jumped again, with usage records up 23.2% on the
previous year
• In spite of a significant reduction to income from the retransmission licence, Screenrights saw
its second highest year in licence revenue at $46.4 million
• The 2022 Screenrights Cultural Fund awarded $213,083 to 5 initiatives
Image Credits:
Barrumbi Kids – Ambience Entertainment & Tamarind Tree Pictures
Ablaze - Jotz Productions
Turn Up the Volume – Film Camp, Photo Jane Zhang
3 | SCREENRIGHTS YEAR IN REVIEW 2022–2023
MESSAGE FROM THE SCREENRIGHTS CHAIR
Kim Dalton Chair
Screenrights can report another strong year of collections and distributions, new licence agreements
successfully negotiated in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand, and record levels of use of our
Australian educational licence.
The Screenrights Board has maintained its focus on key strategic
issues fundamental to the long-term interests of our members.
We continue to advocate for updates to the Copyright Act that
keep pace with the fast changing broadcast and streaming
environments, to make sure that our members are fairly
remunerated for the use of their programs. Screenrights is
pleased to be working closely with the Attorney-General and our
stakeholders on vital copyright reform. We are very supportive
of the consultative approach taken by the Attorney-General
through the Copyright Roundtables.
Any changes to copyright law can be confronting for
stakeholders, but it is very clear that modernising the
Screenrights educational licence will be of benefit to both users
and copyright owners, and we commend the Government on
its work to pursue sensible reform. Over the course of the next
twelve months we expect that the Government will conduct
more public consultation on this issue. We will continue to work
with stakeholders across the sector to ensure the continuation
of the past 33 years of Screenrights’ educational licence growth
and adaptation to new technology, and to ensure it remains
relevant to copyright owners and educators into the future.
The 2022/23 financial year saw a record year for usage records
of our members’ programs by educators in Australia, showing
another jump on the previous year. We are focused on ensuring
that access remains simple and affordable while rightsholders
are provided with equitable returns from the licence fees, so that
they are incentivised to create more of the content that educators
rely on. As technology develops, access to screen content in a
safe environment remains key for teachers and students, and
is well provided for by the resource centres enabled by the
Screenrights licences in Australia and New Zealand.
The importance to educators of Screenrights’ statutory licence is
evidenced in the huge growth in usage that we are seeing. And
we know from our work with our members just how important
the remuneration is that flows from that licensed usage. While
we take the organisation through a digital transformation
that ensures we can process such large amounts of data and
can harness our capabilities in further areas of support to
our members and stakeholders, we look forward to further
consultation with legislators on the copyright issues that impact
our licences.
Kim Dalton, Screenrights Chair
26 October 2023
SCREENRIGHTS YEAR IN REVIEW 2022–2023 | 4
Image Credits:
Summer Love - Gristmill
The Giants – General Strike & Matchbox Pictures
Turn Up the Volume - Film Camp, Photo Jane Zhang
Screenrights is pleased to be
working closely with our
stakeholders and the
Attorney-General on copyright
reform. We are very supportive of
the consultative approach taken
by the Attorney-General through
the Copyright Roundtables.
5 | SCREENRIGHTS YEAR IN REVIEW 2022–2023
Over the year, we distributed a record $40.3 million to members
from our licence revenue. Remarkably, usage records for the
Screenrights Educational Licence in Australia increased by 23.2%
on the previous year, reconfirming the ongoing value of our
members’ content to teachers and students. We also increased
our NZ Educational Licence reach to 39% of schools, leading to a
record year for collections in Aotearoa New Zealand. Along the way
Screenrights’ membership hit 5K, with active records of members’
rights in programs surpassing 1.5 million.
This year we completed new 4-year deals negotiated with both the
Australian and New Zealand universities ensuring their ongoing
access to content along with payment of fair fees to our members.
However, as flagged in last year’s report, retransmission from pay
TV has seen a decrease as satellite and cable services are replaced
by internet streaming, and our licence revenue overall has slightly
decreased as a result.
We continue to advocate on behalf of our members, and
Screenrights is one of 30 organisations participating in the
Australian Attorney-General’s Ministerial Roundtables on
Copyright which commenced in the 2022/23 financial year.
The roundtables aim to increase effective collaboration
between stakeholders and the Government on the development
of Australian copyright law reform, looking at issues like orphan
works, use of materials in remote learning environments,
quotation and, of particular interest to our stakeholders, the
definition of broadcast. Screenrights is advocating to update the
Act in a way that will preserve the remit of our statutory licence
for education as the technology of transmission moves from
traditional broadcasting to online. We are also keeping abreast
of potential issues around AI and copyright as they pertain to our
members and stakeholders.
In FY2022/23 we added a Collection Account Management (CAM)
service to our Disbursements service, and along with our fledgling
Residuals service, we continue to develop new ways to support
the screen industry. We’re investing in this area as a pathway
to improvements to our internal systems through a digital
transformation that is necessary for us to continue to securely,
efficiently and accurately deal with the ever-increasing amounts of
data that we receive around programs, rightsholders and payees.
$ 55.3m$52.4m $55.6m
2021/22 2022/232020/21
34.1m
6.4m
1.1m
2.5m
2.3m
6.0m
MESSAGE FROM THE CHIEF EXECUTIVE
James Dickinson Chief Executive
We’re pleased to report that Screenrights had another strong year in FY2022/23, including our
highest ever year of distributions to members.
Australian Educational Service [AES]
Australian Retransmission Service [ARS]
Australian Government Service [AGS]
NZ Educational Service [NZES]
International Collections Service [ICS]
Disbursements Service [DASA],
Collection Accounts Management Service [CAM]
and Residuals Service [RES]
Revenue from licences and other services,
2020/21 to 2022/23
34.9m
8.3m
1.2m
2.6m
1.6m
7.0m
36.8m
5.8m
1.2m
2.7m
1.8m
7.0m
6 | SCREENRIGHTS YEAR IN REVIEW 2022–2023
Towards the end of the financial year, Screenrights also invested
in a new property. While in the past we owned our premises,
for the past twelve years we have been leasing. The expiry
of the lease, and the news from our landlords that we had to
move, prompted us to look at purchasing again. The cost benefit
analysis showed that owning is much better than leasing for
Screenrights and will be much better for our members. It also
will give us greater opportunities to interact with you by making
space available at our office. We look forward to providing new
areas for members to visit and collaborate at our new location in
the next year. More news on this will come soon.
The sixth year of the Screenrights Cultural Fund awarded
funding of $213,083 to five initiatives meeting the annual focus
of ‘New Opportunities’. 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. More financial detail will be
available soon in our Annual Report, once it has been tabled
in Parliament.
James Dickinson, Chief Executive
26 October 2023
We distributed a record
$40.3 million to members...
Membership hit 5K, with
active records of members’
rights in programs surpassing
1.5 million.
Image Credit:
Turn Up the Volume - Film Camp, Photo Jane Zhang
SCREENRIGHTS YEAR IN REVIEW 2022–2023 | 7
Image Credits:
Barrumbi Kids – Ambience Entertainment & Tamarind Tree Pictures
Franklin - Rock Island Bend Productions, Photo Francois Fourie
Summer Love - Gristmill
The Giants – General Strike & Matchbox Pictures
8 | SCREENRIGHTS YEAR IN REVIEW 2022–2023
COLLECTIONS AND DISTRIBUTIONS
Screenrights reached agreement with the Australian universities on a new 4-year deal covering all 39 public universities, as well as renewing our 4-year agreement with the
New Zealand universities. Our educational licences continued to grow in both Australia and New Zealand, with record years largely offsetting a reduction in income as a result of
the decline of Foxtel’s pay TV business. We continue to distribute the income from our licences efficiently, with 88% of royalties distributed to members within the first year
of availability, and an average of 97% distributed by the end of the statutory distribution period – resulting in a record $40.3 million distributed to members in 2022/23.
FIGURE 1 Collections from licences, 2020/21 to 2022/23
Australian Educational Service [AES]
Australian Retransmission Service [ARS]
Australian Government Service [AGS]
NZ Educational Service [NZES]
$46.4m
$44.0m*
$47.1m*
Continued strong collections and a record year for payments
FIGURE 2 Amount distributed to members each year 2020/21 to 2022/23, and breakdown
by licence scheme type
2021/22 2022/232020/21
34.0m
6.4m
1.1m
2.5m
* Prior year figures have been restated to exclude allocations to IBNR and the Cultural Fund
35.0m
8.3m
1.2m
2.6m
36.8m
5.7m
1.2m
2.7m
2020/21 2021/22
2022/23
$39.4m$38.2m
$40.3m
29.0m
6.2m
1.0m
2.0m
Australian Educational Service [AES]
Australian Retransmission Service [ARS]
Australian Government Service [AGS]
NZ Educational Service [NZES]
29.6m
6.8m
1.0m
2.0m
30.3m
7.0m
0.9m
2.1m
SCREENRIGHTS YEAR IN REVIEW 2022–2023 | 9
2022/23 saw our membership grow 3.08%, to a total of 5150 members from 72 countries as of June 2023. Our database now holds over 1.52 million active registrations
of members’ rights in programs.
Image Credits: Ablaze - Jotz Productions | Franklin - Rock Island Bend Productions, Photo Luke Tscharke
MEMBERSHIP
More members, more program registrations
FIGURE 4 Membership numbers 2020/21 to 2022/23, and breakdown by member type
2021/222020/21
4,9964,897 5,150
Australian members
New Zealand members
International members
2022/23
FIGURE 3 Active registrations of members’ rights in programs, 2020/21 to 2022/23
2021/22
2020/21
2022/23
1.45m
1.35m
1.52m
2,725
425
2,000
2,632
414
1,950
2,542
442
1,913
10 | SCREENRIGHTS YEAR IN REVIEW 2022–2023
Feature Film 28%
Documentary 20%
Factual 17%
Children’s Series 9%
News & Current Affairs 8%
Dedicated Educational 5%
Drama Series 3%
Light Entertainment 3%
Comedy Series 2%
Short 2%
Mini-Series/Telemovie 2%
Reality Television 1%
Other 1%
Strong growth in the use of our educational licences
LICENCE USAGE DATA
FIGURE 6 Share of copies made for different types of content at Australian Educational
Institutions
Usage of the Australian Educational Licence was up by 23.2% on the previous year, once again demonstrating the importance of the licence to educators and students.
Feature Film was the most accessed single category, though non-fiction categories (Documentary, Factual and News & Current Affairs) together made up 45% of content accessed
by educational institutions in Australia. Importantly, the resource centres that we work with support the delivery of these programs under our licences, and help to provide a safe online
environment for teachers and students to access screen content for education.
FIGURE 5 Total number of raw usage records for the Australian Educational Licence,
2018/19 to 2022/23
2022/23
2020/21 2021/22
23,244,86417,744,202 18,861,371
4,997,596 12, 0 21, 3 3 9
2018/19* 20191/20
* 2018/19 raw usage calculated from aggregated data provided by resource centres
11 | SCREENRIGHTS YEAR IN REVIEW 2022–2023
Screenrights’ Disbursements service was complemented by the launch of our Collection Accounts Management service in 2022/23, while our Residuals service continued to develop.
Our Royalties [World] service saw an increase in collections from the previous financial year, related to payment timings from overseas collecting societies that should even out in the
coming months.
INDUSTRY SERVICES
Developing new ways to support our members
FIGURE 7 Total collections through our Disbursements, Collection Account Management and
Residuals services, 2017/18 to 2022/23
$6,571,000
$5,800,000
$6,485,000
FIGURE 8 Screenrights Royalties [World] 2022/23 collections breakdown by territory
2021/22 **
2017/18
2018/19
2019/20
2020/21
2022/23 *
$2,132,000
$5,401,000
$2,940,000
Netherlands
Canada
Sweden
Germany
Finland
Denmark
France
Belgium
Switzerland
Norway
Other Countries
$1.64
million
Image Credits:
Summer Love - Gristmill
Barrumbi Kids – Ambience Entertainment
& Tamarind Tree Pictures
Franklin
-
Rock Island Bend Productions,
Photo Francois Fourie
* CAM service commenced in 2022/23 ** RES service commenced in 2021/22
SCREENRIGHTS YEAR IN REVIEW 2022–2023 | 12
Employee Related
$5,364,000
Operating Expenses
$1,304,000
Information Technology
$ 663,000
Licensing
$ 535,000
Legal
$ 497,000
Promotions/ Marketing
$ 145,000
Other
$ 123,000
Travel
$ 61,000
Minimising our costs while transforming for the future
FIGURE 10 Overall expenditure to collections ratio, 2020/21 to 2022/23FIGURE 9 Breakdown of Expenditure for 2022/23
EXPENDITURE
$8.69
million
16.0%
2020/21
Image Credit: Barrumbi Kids – Ambience Entertainment & Tamarind Tree Pictures
15.0%
2021/22
2022/23 saw an increase in our Expenses to Collections ratio that was necessitated by investment in our digital transformation. These crucial upgrades of our infrastructure will make
sure that Screenrights can continue to manage the increasing amounts of data that our systems process to transact with our members and stakeholders quickly and accurately.
16.9%
2022/23
SCREENRIGHTS YEAR IN REVIEW 2022–2023 | 13
Screenrights is investing in a digital transformation to keep our systems efficient and accurate, as well as improve security and keep up with ever-increasing amounts of data. In
2022/23 we launched a new web application for all Screenrights members and clients. Initially available to beneficiaries of the Residuals Service, the new platform will be rolled
out to all service users over time.
DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION
Ongoing service improvements for members and stakeholders
Screenrights’ new web application, now available to Residuals users
and coming soon to all service users
FIGURE 11S Screenrights platform improvements
Multi-factor
authentication
and flexible payment
system coming
soon for all
Continual
improvement:
a new release
every fortnight
Launched web
application,
initially made
available to
Residuals users
FY2022/23
14 | SCREENRIGHTS YEAR IN REVIEW 2022–2023
SCREEN INDUSTRY SUPPORT
The 2022 Screenrights Cultural Fund awarded $213,083 to 5 initiatives meeting the annual focus of
New Opportunities:
→
Arts & Cultural Exchange for ‘Screen Trades’, a training scheme addressing shortages in the areas
of VFX, Production Accounting and Assistant Camera roles for diverse practitioners;
→
Goolarri Media Enterprises for the ‘Goolarri Writers Program’ series of tutorials, masterclasses and
mentoring opportunities that supports emerging Indigenous performance writers in the Kimberley;
→
Pacific Kids’ Learning for stop motion workshops for year six Pasifika primary school students
through the ‘Young Pasifika Animators’ program;
→
POW Studios for ‘See Them: Be Them’, a series of three workshops for 14-18 year olds to demystify
the world of post production for marginalised young people in Aotearoa; and
→
Channel 44 in partnership with SAFC First Nations for ‘TV Pilot Initiative’, an Indigenous-led program
to help South Australian First Nations participant filmmakers to develop and grow their skills.
Screenrights is actively participating in the Attorney-General’s Ministerial Roundtables on Copyright,
with a particular focus on advocating for updates to the Copyright Act that will preserve the remit of
the Australian Educational Licence as transmission moves from traditional broadcasting to online.
And we continued to advocate for our members and stakeholders in support of a vibrant screen
industry:
→
Response to Draft Guidelines on the Application of Competition Law to Intellectual Property Rights
(NZ) – Submission by Screenrights
→
Response to Remaking the Broadcasting Service Exclusion Determination – Submission by
Screenrights
→
Response to a New National Cultural Policy – Submission by Screenrights
Image Credits:
Barrumbi Kids – Ambience Entertainment & Tamarind Tree Pictures
The Giants – General Strike & Matchbox Pictures
Turn Up the Volume – Film Camp, Photo Jane Zhang
