2020-2021
YEAR IN REVIEW
KEY HIGHLIGHTS
• A record $47.6 million was available for distribution
to Screenrights members, and $45.3 million was
distributed to 1,437 members in 2020/21
• Usage of the Australian Educational Licence
continued on a massive growth trajectory with the
demands of remote learning, with usage records
up 48% on the previous year, confirming the
continued importance of the licence to the Australian
education sector
• Our Royalties [World] and Disbursements services
achieved record years for collections, while we
launched a new Residuals service
• New AI technological approaches were implemented
to manage the continued exponential growth in data
• On behalf of our members, we negotiated a new
Australian schools Educational Licence agreement
• We fast-tracked payments to members, releasing
December 2020 royalties in October to assist those
impacted by shutdowns
Image Credits:
Front cover: HardBall S2 - Northern Pictures | Rams - We Are Wasted, Photo Ben King | Eden - Every Cloud Productions, Photo Lisa Tomasetti |
I Am Woman - Goalpost Pictures, Photo Tony Mott | Luke Nguyen’s Food Trail - Red Creative Media | Project Planet - Emerald Films & Metamorflix |
Unsound - WiseGoat Productions | Sequin in a Blue Room - Sequin in a Blue Room
Opposite: Rams - We Are Wasted, Photo Ian Brodie | Eden - Every Cloud Productions, Photo Lisa Tomasetti | Project Planet - Emerald Films & Metamorflix |
Unsound - WiseGoat Productions
MESSAGE FROM THE SCREENRIGHTS CHAIR
It would have been difficult to predict a couple of years ago just how important that niche would become in
a pandemic as the world transitioned overnight to remote work and online learning, and the screen sector
was so terribly disrupted by shutdowns. FY2020/21 built on the challenges of the previous financial year,
and I thank my fellow directors and the staff for once again rising to the occasion.
In 2020/21 Screenrights achieved our second highest distribution year on record, while the Disbursements
and Royalties [World] services each recorded record years for collections. In response to ongoing
interruptions to the screen industry, the Board approved bringing Screenrights Collecting Society
payments forward and into the hands of our members as soon as possible.
Kim Dalton Chair
Screenrights is an organisation that looks after a very particular part of copyright law that
may seem to operate without much fuss or attention.
It’s vital that Screenrights remains focused on
achieving fair payment for the use of our
members’ programs.
The education sector continued to rely heavily on screen content available
through the Screenrights Educational Licence for students’ remote learning,
and it was great to see our members’ programs provide such support to teachers
over this period.
Importantly, the organisation continues to advocate on behalf of our members
to make sure that they continue to receive fair compensation for their content.
In 2020/21, Screenrights negotiated a new Australian schools agreement for
the Educational Licence over the coming years, and has been engaging with the
Australian government and other stakeholders in relation to proposed copyright
access reforms.
In 2020/21 we once again applied to the Copyright Tribunal for a determination
of equitable remuneration for retransmission of the free-to-air television
channels by Foxtel. Whilst this is never something we want to do, it’s vital that
Screenrights remains focused on achieving fair payment for the use of our
members’ programs. While it can seem that Screenrights floats along smoothly
and effortlessly, in truth we must always be working to defend our members’
rights to ensure that the distributions to which you are entitled are paid to you
fairly, efficiently and promptly.
Kim Dalton
Screenrights Chair
24 September 2021
Image Credits:
Luke Nguyen’s Food Trail
-
Red Creative Media
I Am Woman
-
Goalpost Pictures, Photo Lisa Tomasetti
Rams
-
We Are Wasted, Photo Ian Brodie
MESSAGE FROM THE CHIEF EXECUTIVE
James Dickinson Chief Executive
We’ve seen a continuation in the heightened use of screen
productions to support students in learning from home
environments, and we’re proud that our members’
programs provide such valuable educational tools.
As announced in January 2019, Screenrights has now
transitioned from a 6-year to a 4-year distribution period –
following a 12-month postponement due to the pandemic
that allowed us to focus our efforts on bringing new royalty
payments to our members sooner. Royalties from the
2015, 2016 and 2017 distribution years closed on 30 June
2021, and by that date we successfully distributed 97.3%
of expiring pools from the 2015, 2016 and 2017 distribution
years to our members. The June payment totalled over
$5 million, which is the second-largest end of financial
year payment in Screenrights’ history.
Screenrights staff worked incredibly hard to bring
the December 2020 release of royalties – the largest
annual round of payments – into October. This while
they were also working with a four-fold increase in the
volume of usage records. The organisation continues
to experience exponential growth in data, which we
process to allocate member payments according to which
programs are being used by licensees, and Screenrights
has embraced innovative digital approaches to managing
this influx. To that end, through the implementation of
machine learning approaches and cost effective systems
reviews, we are increasing our efficiencies and improving
our members’ experience.
FY2020/21 continued to bring challenges to the sectors we work with – to Screenrights members,
who create our screen content; and to our licensees, particularly educators using our members’
content to reach students online. In spite of the challenges, a record $47.6 million was available for
distribution to Screenrights members this financial year.
Through the implementation of machine learning
approaches and cost effective systems reviews,
we are increasing our efficiencies and improving
our members’ experience.
Image Credits:
Sequin in a Blue Room - Sequin in a Blue Room
I Am Woman - Goalpost Pictures, Photo Tony Mott
HardBall S2 - Northern Pictures
Once again the value of Screenrights’
licences to educators was demonstrated
with usage records of screen content
climbing this financial year by 48% for the
Australian Educational Licence. The online
resource centres continued to support
teachers and students throughout the extra
challenges presented by on-and-off remote
learning requirements, and we successfully
negotiated a new Australian schools
agreement for the licence. We also looked at
ways to partner with organisations such as
ABC Education to further expand access to
the screen content available to teachers and
students through the Educational Licence,
with teachers now able to access a whole
new platform online via the ABC website
and their Screenrights licence.
In 2020/21 Screenrights distributed
$45.3 million to members, our second
highest distribution year on record.
Our Disbursements service collected
$5.8 million on behalf of our clients this
financial year, up 10%, while our Royalties
[World] service also grew to over
$2 million in collections for the first time
ever. In addition, we launched a new
Residuals service, responding to the needs
of some of our Disbursements clients. We
look forward to seeing how this can further
shoulder some of the administrative burden
and allow our members more time to focus
on creating.
The fourth year of the Screenrights Cultural
Fund awarded record funding of $295K to
seven projects. These included expanding
Bus Stop Films’ Accessible Film Studies
program, Tai Huri Films’ training and skills
development workshop for rangatahi Māori
aged 15-25, and Juluwarlu Group Aboriginal
Corporation’s Our Ganalili Heroes initiative.
We can’t wait to see the impact that these
initiatives will have on the diversity of our
industry alongside those funded in previous
grant rounds.
Screenrights’ members, licensees and staff
have continued to face the particular
challenges thrown up by COVID-19
restrictions, and I’m so proud of the work our
organisation has done to support all of our
stakeholders. We’ll continue to work hard
to ensure our systems are ready to meet the
complexities of an ever-changing landscape,
and allow us to serve you the best we can
into the future.
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 find
more financial detail in our Annual Report.
James Dickinson,
Chief Executive
24 September 2021
DISTRIBUTION
In 2020/21, the new money for distribution to members was a record $47.6 million.
FIGURE 1 Total funds available for distribution to members, by type of licence,
2018/19 to 2020/21
Australian Educational Service [AES]
Australian Retransmission Service [ARS]
Australian Government Service [AGS]
NZ Educational Service [NZES]
Royalties World Service [RWS]
Disbursements Service [DASA]
$43.5m $45.8m
2020/212018/19 2019/20
28.5m
6.8m
1.0m
2.1m
1.9m
5.4m
30.1m
6.3m
1.1m
2.3m
2.0m
5.8m
27.8m
7.9m
1.5m
2.0m
1.4m
2.9m
$47.6m
Continued strong collections and payments to our members
FIGURE 2 Amount distributed to members each year 2018/19 to 2020/21, and breakdown
by type of member
Australian members
Australian collecting society members
New Zealand members
International members
$40.9 $46.5 $45.3m
In 2020/21, we distributed $45.3m to our members.
2020/212018/19 2019/20
$21.5
$4.1
$14.8
$0.5
$4.2m
$19.1m
$21.5m
$0.5m
$3.4
$16.6
$26.0
$0.5
2020/21 saw our membership grow 3.8%, to total 4,897 members from 69 countries as of June 2021. Our database now holds over 1.4 million active registrations of members’ rights
in programs.
Image Credits: Rams - We Are Wasted, Photo Merlyn Moon | HardBall S2 - Northern Pictures
MEMBERSHIP
Paying more members than ever before
FIGURE 4 Membership numbers 2018/19 to 2020/21, and breakdown by member type
2019/202018/19
4,7094,438 4,897
Australian members
New Zealand members
International members
2020/21
FIGURE 3 Number of members receiving secondary royalty payments, 2018/19 to 2020/21
2019/20
2018/19
2020/21
1,395
1,317
1,437
2,542
442
1,913
2,443
424
1,842
2,281
398
1,759
On behalf of our members, in 2020/21 Screenrights negotiated a new Australian schools agreement.
We were unable to come to an agreement with Foxtel on the retransmission licence, and as a result
applied to the Copyright Tribunal for a determination of equitable remuneration for retransmission
of free-to-air television.
FIGURE 5 Revenue from licences and other collection services [including interest], total and by service type,
2018/19 to 2020/21
2019/20
2020/21
2018/19
$52.4m$51.2m $53.4m
34.1m
6.4m
1.1m
2.5m
2.3m
6.0m
33.2m
9.3m
1.6m
2.5m
1.5m
3.1m
34.0m
7.9m
1.2m
2.6m
2.1m
5.6m
Australian Educational Service [AES]
Australian Retransmission Service [ARS]
Australian Government Service [AGS]
NZ Educational Service [NZES]
Royalties World Service [RWS]
Disbursements Service [DASA]
FIGURE 6 Screenrights’ applications to the Copyright Tribunal since 1990
LICENCES
A fair fee for the use of members’ programs
Image Credit:
Griff’s Great Kiwi Road Trip - EQ Media Group [NZ] Limited | Rams - We Are Wasted, Photo Ian Brodie |
Eden - Every Cloud Productions, Photo Lisa Tomasetti
Schools educational
licence fee application
1994
1998
2011
2001 2020
Universities educational
license fee application
Retransmission licence
fee application
Retransmission licence
fee application
Retransmission licence
fee application
Feature Film 29%
Documentary 21%
Factual 18%
News & Current Affairs 8%
Children’s Series 5%
Drama Series 4%
Dedicated Educational 4%
Light Entertainment 3%
Comedy Series 2%
Short 2%
Mini-Series/Telemovie 2%
Reality Television 1%
Other 1%
Continued exponential 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 a massive growth trajectory,
up 48% on 2019/20, confirming the continued importance of the licence to the Australian
education sector.
FIGURE 7 Total number of raw usage records for the Australian Educational Licence,
2018/19 to 2020/21
For the second year running, Feature Film was the most accessed content type by
educational institutions. Non-fiction categories [Factual, Documentary, News & Current
Affairs] together represented 47% of content accessed by educators.
2020/21
2018/19* 2019/20
17,74 4,2024,997,596 12,021,339
* 2018/19 raw usage calculated from aggregated data
provided by resource centres
FIGURE 9 Number of records consolidated in June, annual comparison
Over FY2020/21, Screenrights implemented AI machine learning technology to assist with our ever-increasing data management functions. This means we no longer rely on manual
reviews to consolidate identical program registration data and match claims to payable royalties. We’re also able to identify competing claims [where two or more members claim the same
royalties] sooner, and fast track their resolution at a rate comparable to previous years despite an exponential growth in usage. This results in a better service overall for our members.
Image Credit: Project Planet - Emerald Films & Metamorflix | Luke Nguyen’s Food Trail - Red Creative Media | Sequin in a Blue Room - Sequin in a Blue Room
FIGURE 10 Median number of days taken to identify competing claims, annual comparison
INNOVATION TO MANAGE BIG DATA
JUNE 2020
Prior to machine
learning system
implementation
JUNE 2021
Following machine
learning system
implementation
3,602
17,097
169
22
MAY 2020
Prior to machine
learning system
implementation
MAY 2021
Following machine
learning system
implementation
Reducing costs and improving service with artificial intelligence
Comparisons of months during which Screenrights focused on these functions
FIGURE 12 Screenrights’ current and upcoming industry services
Screenrights’ Disbursements and Royalties [World] services both saw record years in 2020/21, while we also launched a new Residuals service and began developing
an Insights service.
SERVICES
Expanding our industry services to further support our members
FIGURE 11 Total collections through our Disbursements service 2015/16 to 2020/21
$5,800,000
$2,940,000
$5,401,000
FIGURE 13 Screenrights Royalties [World] 2020/21 collections breakdown by territory
Germany
Netherlands
Switzerland
France
USA
Canada
Denmark
Finland
Sweden
Other
CURRENT
UPCOMING
2019/20
2015/16
2016/17
2017/18
2018/19
2020/21
$200,000
$2,132,000
$580,000
$2.04
million
Working hard to minimise our costs
FIGURE 15 Overall expenditure to collections ratio, 2018/19 to 2020/21
15.9%
2019/20
16.2%
2018/19
FIGURE 14 Breakdown of Expenditure for 2020/21
EXPENDITURE
NZ $130,000
Licensing $112,000
Operating Expenses $2,220,000
Promotions/Marketing $149,000
Legal $550,000
Travel $7,000
Other $333,000
Employee Related $5,359,000
$8.86
million
16.0%
2020/21
Image Credits: Luke Nguyen’s Food Trail - Red Creative Media | Eden - Every Cloud Productions, Photo Lisa Tomasetti
Despite the pressure on revenue from decreased retransmission income in the short-term, and costs from subsequent litigation to obtain fair remuneration on behalf of our members,
we are keeping our expenses to collections ratio steady and continue to focus on bringing this down.
SCREEN INDUSTRY SUPPORT
Screenrights continued to advocate for our members’ rights in support of a
vibrant screen industry, while the 2020 Cultural Fund supported the greatest
number of initiatives yet.
Response to ACCC Mandatory News Media Bargaining Code Concepts Paper
Ongoing advocacy on behalf of our members around proposed copyright reforms
The 2020 Screenrights Cultural Fund awarded a record $295K to 7 initiatives meeting
the annual focus of New Voices:
Bus Stop Films – to expand their award-winning Accessible Film Studies Program
to Queensland, Victoria and South Australia;
Juluwarlu Group Aboriginal Corporation – for Our Ganalili Heroes, a youth digital
media project sustaining the deep cultural and community-held knowledge of
Yindjibarndi;
Cinespace – for an online educational program giving culturally diverse creatives
the tools to be able to access industry;
Tai Huri Films – for Kōrero Tuku Iho, a story development and screen production
residency for rangatahi Māori from Aotearoa New Zealand’s Far North region;
Screenworks – for a program to train undiscovered, diverse and talented
screenwriters living in regional Australia with specific skills that meet industry
requirements;
Southland Creative – for My Home My Culture South Coast NSW Short Film Project,
a short filmmaking mentorship program for aspiring young local filmmakers;
Script to Screen Te Tari Tuhi Kupu A Whakaahua – for Paerangi Project, a 3-stage
programme that finds new voices in remote regions and isolated situations.
Image Credits:
Griff’s Great Kiwi Road Trip - EQ Media Group [NZ] Limited
Sequin in a Blue Room - Sequin in a Blue Room
Rams - We Are Wasted, Photo Court McAllister
Screenrights
ABN: 76 003 912 310
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
