ANNUALREPORT

2017-2018

CONTENTS

Image Credits

All cover images:

Shutterstock

About Screenrights .............................................1

Our Values ...........................................................2

The Year in Brief..................................................3

Chair’s Report .....................................................4

Chief Executive’s Report .....................................7

Simon Lake: Highlights from 20 years

of Leadership ....................................................10

Overview of Key Statistics .................................12

Governance Statement .....................................19

Company Proﬁle ................................................20

Directors’ Report ..............................................21

Directors’ Declaration .......................................25

Independent Auditor’s Report ..........................26

Lead Auditor’s Independence

Declaration........................................................28

Annotated Statement of Financial

Performance .....................................................29

Consolidated Statement of Proﬁt

and Loss ............................................................30

Consolidated Balance Sheet .............................31

Statement of Cash Flows ..................................32

Statement of Changes in Equity .......................33

Notes to the Consolidated Financial

Statements ........................................................34

Appendix ...........................................................56

CONTENTS

SCREENRIGHTS ANNUAL REPORT 2017–2018 | 1

ABOUT SCREENRIGHTS

SCREENRIGHTS IS A NOT-FOR-PROFIT COMPANY THAT PROVIDES

LICENSING, RIGHTS AND ROYALTY MANAGEMENT SERVICES FOR

FILM, TELEVISION, RADIO AND OTHER BROADCAST CONTENT.

As a ‘collecting society’ under Australia’s

(Cth), we facilitate

access to content through simple licensing

solutions covering:

• educational institutions, enabling them to

copy broadcast material and communicate

it to staff and students

• subscription television and other services

that retransmit free-to-air broadcasts

• state and federal government

departments, enabling them to copy from

television, radio and the internet.

We also offer voluntary educational licences

in New Zealand under the

1994

(NZ).

The fees we collect from our licensees

become royalty payments to rightsholders,

who are Screenrights members.

The revenue streams from these payments

then contribute to the ongoing production

of quality screen content, which in turn

beneﬁts licensees.

In addition, Screenrights offers a range

of other related services to its members,

including international registration of their

rights and disbursement of commercial

revenue for their projects.

Our vision: to support the growth and

diversity of screen production in Australia,

New Zealand and around the world.

Our mission: to provide access to

audiovisual content, and to collect and

distribute income for rightsholders.

Filmmakers

make programs

for TV

Programs

are copied,

communicated

or retransmitted

Screenrights

pays royalties

to rightsholders

Screenrights

collects fees

and tracks

use of programs

OUR VALUES

In all aspects of its operations, Screenrights is

committed to upholding its core values – the

unique set of beliefs that make up our world

view. They guide us in fulﬁlling our mission and

inspire us to achieve our vision. They underpin

how we make decisions and how we act, how

we respond to challenges and how we embrace

the many exciting opportunities in front of us as

we achieve our goals. We champion these ideas:

DIVERSITY ENRICHES THE

WORLD

The variety of content that our members create

makes the world more interesting, engaging

and compelling.

THE POWER OF CREATIVITY

Creativity has a unique ability to express,

communicate and spread ideas.

VALUE OF IDEAS

The ideas expressed by our members help

shape conversations and debate in our society.

ACHIEVEMENT THROUGH

COLLABORATION

We form partnerships with our members,

stakeholders and third parties and work closely

to achieve our mutual goals.

TRANSPARENCY

We are not-for-proﬁt, we have no hidden

agendas and we are accountable. This is

reﬂected in everything we do.

SCREENRIGHTS ANNUAL REPORT 2017–2018 | 3

THE YEAR IN BRIEF

DURING 2017/18, SCREENRIGHTS

HAS:

• distributed a total of $42.8 million through

4,469 individual payments to members

• raised $49.5 million in licence revenue

and other income for the ﬁlm and

television industries

• grown the number of titles registered by

members to 1.66 million, up 11.4%

• achieved an expenses to collections ratio

of 15.9%

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE YEAR

INCLUDE:

• accelerated takeup of our educational

streaming service, EnhanceTV, with the

service now reaching 20% of Australian

primary schools

• launch of a new Cultural Fund, which

will make available up to $200,000 in

2018/19 for initiatives designed to explore

innovative approaches to the creation of

screen content for the education sector

• 267% growth in Screenrights

Disbursements Administration Service,

with $2.1 million collected for distribution

to ﬁlmmakers and investors in 15 ﬁlm and

television projects

• continued advocacy for a strong and

fair copyright regime that supports the

ongoing viability of screen production

as well as facilitates access to the content

it creates

• redevelopment of the Screenrights

website to improve navigation and

access to services for members and

content users.

“ Royalties from

Screenrights help

my business to ﬁnance

the development of

new ideas for

production.”

Member

Image Credits

Cracking the Colour Code,

Electric Pictures

Life on the Reef,

Northern Pictures

We Don’t Need a Map,

Barefoot Communications

Diversiﬁcation of our ser vices and increased ac cess to

content for the beneﬁt of both rightshold ers and content

users are key strategic prior ities for Screenrig hts.

In this context, we are particul arly pleased to repor t

signiﬁcant growth in our disbu rsements administr ation

service, with $2.1 million colle cted during the year.

Although still accounting for a rela tively small

proportion of total funds coll ected, Disbursement s

by Screenrights has seen exp onential growth since

it began in 2013/14. Its success reﬂe cts the trust the

industry places in us, and re cognition of our experti se

in managing rights and royalt y ﬂows. Building on

our strengths in this way to offer new se rvices to the

industry helps ensure our on going contribution to

the ecosystem that sustains conte nt production in

Australia, New Zealand and ar ound the world.

Overall the amount collecte d and available for

distribution to our members thr ough our licences and

royalty collection se rvices totalled $ 42.1 million in

2017/18, up 5% on last year.

This growth is obviously be neﬁcial for members. At the

same time, however, we are committed to ensu ring that

licensees continue to ﬁnd value in the li cence fees they

pay for members’ content.

Our investment in EnhanceTV is one exam ple of that

commitment, providing teach ers with resources and

streaming access to a huge range of conte nt through

our educational licences acro ss the primary, seconda ry

and tertiary sector s.

Also with an eye on maintaining a heal thy content

ecosystem, the launch of our Cultur al Fund in April 2018

saw Screenrights join coll ecting societies aroun d the

world in allocating a percentag e of revenues collected

to supporting initiatives th at contribute to industry

CHAIR’S REPORT

Jill Bryant Chair

development. Up to 1% of our distributable in come

annually will be set aside for Screen rights’ Cultural

Fund, with a speciﬁc focus each year. We see this as an

investment in the future on behalf of bot h members and

licensees. The inaugura l funding round, focusing on the

education sector, will be delivere d in 2018/19 and we will

monitor its effectivene ss closely to ensure it is meeting

its objectives.

The litigation initiated by the Aust ralian Writers’ Guild

and the Australian Writers’ Gui ld Authorship Collec ting

Society was not resolve d during 2017/18 and a court

hearing is now scheduled for Nove mber 2018. We

remain open to ﬁnding a resolution in the me antime

and will continue to collect and pay roy alties to our

members in accordance with appl icable contracts and

Australian law, including to wr iters where they own th e

relevant rights and have regi stered their claim.

It’s worth noting that of the more than 6 milli on

recorded uses of program s Screenrights is managi ng,

99.5% of royalty claims are paid wi thout any ongoing

dispute.

Finally, I want to take the opportunit y to acknowledge

that this is the last annual repor t under the leadership

of Screenrights’ long-ser ving Chief Executiv e, Simon

Lake, who resigned in July 2018 after mor e than 20

years at the helm. As Chair, I have worked wi th Simon

for 10 of those years, and I will miss his genuin e desire

to deliver the very best org anisation that members and

licensees deserve. He le aves with the very be st wishes

of the Board and Management.

Jill Bryant, Chair

27 September 2018

SCREENRIGHTS ANNUAL REPORT 2017–2018 | 5

Image Credits

The Almighty Johnsons Series 3,

South Paciﬁc Pictures

This is Brazil

, Special Broadcasting Service

The Waler. Australia’s Great War Horse

, MagoFilms

Hunting the Ice Whales,

Natural History New Zealand

Holding the Man,

Goalpost Pictures Aust P/L

Transmission Films (Dist)

“ EnhanceTV has made

accessing content for

my subject easier –

so much easier –

no longer do I have

to battle to ﬁnd a clip

due to copyright

issues online.”

Secondary school teacher