Throughout the European Union (and in several other countries) film and television directors are legally recognised as being authors of their work. This right of authorship may give directors an entitlement to receive payment for certain uses of their work – such as cable retransmission, private copying, video rentals.

These payments are administered through the international network of authors’ collecting societies.

Directors UK has concluded agreements with societies in over 20 countries and has collected considerable sums of money on behalf of British film and television directors over the past twenty years.

It is in your interest to register with Directors UK as soon as possible to ensure you receive any payment due to you. Contact the Membership department at [email protected].

See the Rules of Distribution for foreign payments below.

If you have received a foreign payment from Directors UK you can find further information about VAT, EC Sales lists or the codes used on your invoice here.

Directors UK currently has agreements with the following collecting societies: 

Rules of Distribution (Foreign)

Management Charges

A management fee is deducted from each payment issued. This is currently 15% for payments received from foreign collecting societies.

VAT is charged on the management fee in the case of all payments issued to UK residents and to EU residents who are not themselves registered for VAT.

VAT is not charged on payments issued to residents outside the European Union or where the member is a resident of another EU country and is VAT registered.

An additional charge of £10 + VAT is deducted from all payments issued by cheque where the payment is issued to a UK resident. A receipt for this amount is sent with the payment.

1. MONITORING & PREPARATION OF CLAIMS

(a) CLAIMS

The following CMO’s (Collective Management Organisations) require a claim to be submitted:

• Suissimage
• VDFS

(b) CHECKLISTS

The following CMOs issue checklists. Works on the returned list represent the Directors UK ‘claim’.

2. ALLOCATION OF PAYMENTS

(a) Payment allocated by the distributing society

The following societies issue full distribution information (ie. actual amount due per work). 

b) Allocation of payments by Directors UK

The following societies issue a fixed sum to Directors UK. Allocation of individual payments is at the discretion of Directors UK. 

In the case of money received from these societies the following procedure will be adopted:

• Every effort will be made to identify British works transmitted on the relevant channels during the period concerned. These will be included in the distribution.

3. ADMINISTRATION

(a) All claims must be prepared in accordance with the requirement of the distributing society and submitted on time.

(b) All checklists must be prepared in accordance with the requirement of the distributing society and submitted on time.

(c) Every effort must be made to ensure that information contained in claims and on checklists is accurate and complete.

(d) Where appropriate, information must be submitted using CISAC standard formats.

(e) Claims can only be made in respect of works that are on the Directors UK database.

(f) Directors UK staff will use best endeavours to obtain information on works which are included on checklists and/or claims but which have not been registered on the Directors UK database. If the necessary information cannot be found for a qualifying work by the date due for the submission of information to the distributing society, the work will be removed from the claim.