ASDACS AGM 2024 - Chair Report
As you all know we have been working over the last few months with external consultants on a campaign to secure access to a secondary revenue stream for Australian Directors beyond retransmission rights, which Screenrights estimates will diminish in the next 10 years. The campaign is centred around a change to the Copyright Act, which requires the support of the Federal Government and industry stakeholders. That is why we have been focusing our efforts on talking to the right people to make this change possible.
Last month our Executive Director, Deb Jackson and Lobbyist, Lilia Bednarek travelled to Canberra where they met with the offices of the Attorney General, the Minister for the Arts and the Minister for Communications. Alongside this work, ASDACS have hosted and will continue to host consultation sessions with key industry stakeholders, who we are keen to work with on this journey to a fairer distribution of secondary revenue for all creatives.
The Government has indicated that they are open to continuing the conversation and are very interested in receiving regular updates about the progress we are making with industry. They are firm in their stance of wanting to support Australia’s creative industries to ensure its sustainability and growth, as we continue to see the consumption of film move increasingly online.
This campaign is vital to the future of ASDACS and we will continue to push forward in the hopes that post-election next year we will have the support of the majority of industry stakeholders alongside a willingness from Government for change. I ask the Board to continue with its support of this initiative and to speak openly to their networks, colleagues and peers about the importance of supporting this much-needed change.
As the Government has shown a willingness to support the creative industries, now is the time for our Board, alongside the ADG, to continue advocating for fair remuneration for our members.
Thanks to Accounts HQ and in particular Lauren Hillier for their significant role in guiding our fiscal governance. I would like to extend thanks to our departing Board members Partho Sen-Gupta and Scott Hartford-Davis. Partho was our ADG representative on the board and his energy will be sorely missed. Scott leaves us after ten years and three years as Chair. He was integral to the development of our Copyright Campaign which is an inspired long-term vision for the future of our Directors and secures a place for ASDACS as an integral part of rights and royalties protection. Thank you Scott.
Finally, enormous thanks go to our tireless Executive Director Deb Jackson. Deb has been simply exceptional on every level over this last year, and I am deeply indebted to her for commitment, tenacity and all-round excellence.
Di Drew
Chair of ASDACS
ASDACS AGM 14 November 2024
ASDACS - Key Highlights
Financials (1 July 2023 – 30 June 2024)
Total collections for the year: $1.8M
Distributions to members during the year: $1M.
17% increase in overall collections.
Reduction in admin fee from 18.63% to 17.07%.
Cultural and Charitable purposes fund
$50k: ADG National Development Program & ADG Awards.
$10k: Motion Picture Benevolent Fund.
$76k: New cultural funds transferred.
Development
$ 8k: Database development.
$24k: Copyright advocacy.
$ 4k: IT Upgrades.
$ 2k: Distributed to members (closed funds)
Membership
Membership increase: 4% (Total: 1552).
Membership copyright assignment: 68% (Total: 1063) Members signed.
Global Collections and Collecting Society Partnerships
CISAC Worldwide collections report (2022 Data): audio-visual collection +8.3%.
New collecting society partner signed: SEF (Turkey)
Other activities:
Launch of directors’ copyright campaign, government lobbying and industry consultation.
On going representation at the Attorney General’s copyright roundtables
on AI, definition of broadcast, orphan works, fair dealing quotation exception and remote learning.
Attendance at international meetings including the CISAC General Assembly in Seoul (Korea) and CTDLV Meeting in Sofia (Bulgaria).