ASDACS AGM 2023 - Chair Report

ASDACS is pleased to welcome new board member, Partho Sen-Gupta this year, who brings a wealth of very welcome copyright knowledge and energy. Due to work commitments, I will step down as Chair, but will remain on the board in a supportive capacity. My thanks to Di Drew, who has tirelessly stepped in as Deputy Chair.

Among the key highlights for the period, ASDACS: signed two new collecting society partnerships (DAC/Argentina & AGADU/Uruguay); instituted a constitutional and governance reform; and introduced a new Screenrights presumption based on our members retransmission rights assignment model. Collections have stabilised (drop of -5%) in line with a decrease in expenditure (-5%).

I wish to thank the ASDACS board and staff for their continued excellence and commitment to ASDACS with special mention to the invaluable Deb Jackson.

The key takeaways for the year are listed below.

-Scott Hartford Davis, ASDACS Chair

Key Highlights (1 July 2022 – 30 June 2023)

Finance

·       Total collections for the year: $1,583,156.

·       Distributions to members during the year: $1,083,964.

·       -5% decrease in overall collections.

·       -5% decrease in expenditure (2022-2023: $294,129 compared with 2021-2022: $310,402 FY).

·       Admin fee: 18.63% 

Cultural and Charitable purposes fund

·       $50,000: ADG National Development Program & ADG Awards.

·       $10,000: DEGANZ Director’s Education program on rights & renumeration.

·       $62,836: New cultural funds transferred.

Development

·       $19,917: used on database development.

·       $  1,005: distributed to members (closed funds).

·       $77,937: new funds allocated to the development pool. 

Membership

·       Membership increase: 4% (Total: 1488).

·       Membership Copyright Assignment: 63% (Total: 954) Members signed. 

Global Collections and Collecting Society Partnerships

·       CISAC Worldwide collections report (2022 Data): Audio-visual collection +11%.

·       New collecting society partners signed: DAC (Argentina) / AGADU (Uruguay).

Other activities:

·       Introduction of Screenrights ‘Presumption 11’ based on ASDACS Copyright Assignment model (minimising competing claims on royalties and streamlining the collections of Australian retransmission royalties on behalf of members).

·       Representation at the Attorney General’s copyright roundtables on AI, definition of broadcast,  orphan works, fair dealing quotation exception and remote learning.