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