OpenletterfromUKdirectorstotheglobalVODstreamingcompanies

But behind every programme you commission is a director whose creativity, craft and vision are integral to that success. You know the value we directors bring - now we need you to show it.

For over 25 years, all the UK's public service broadcasters plus Sky have contributed, along with their production partners, to a scheme which allows directors of UK television programmes to be paid copyright royalties for repeat showings and sales of the programmes they direct. Before this scheme was established, most UK television directors would be paid once for their services and then never receive a penny, regardless of the ongoing popularity of the programme they created. While the ongoing payments made under this scheme are modest by anyone's standards, they can be a crucial source of income in the highly precarious world in which we directors operate.

In contrast, your companies, which have been commissioning television programmes in the UK for over 10 years, have still not signed up to any form of royalty or residual scheme for the benefit of UK directors. This is despite the fact that we are legally one of the original owners of the copyright in the programmes we direct for these companies, and despite the best efforts of Directors UK, our copyright management organisation, to engage in negotiations.

While we applaud the investments you make in original UK production, we cannot help but note the contrast between your enthusiastic take up of UK tax incentive schemes and the very slow pace of discussions on an appropriate royalty scheme for UK directors. 

We want to send a clear message to you all: royalties are a lifeblood for directors, however successful we may be at some point in our careers.

 In the US, and in many countries in Europe and Latin America, practices have evolved to secure ongoing payments for directors - whether through collective bargaining or copyright laws. Please treat us with equal respect, and agree a timetable with Directors UK to conclude negotiations to ensure the future of the directing talent you rely on for your success.

SIGNED

We will continue to update our list of signatories at regular intervals. If you are Directors UK member and want to add your name, click here.

James Abadi
Sami Abusamra
Abdullai Adejumo
Joseph Adesunloye
Nelson Adeosun
Vickie Ager
Joss Agnew
Adnan Ahmed
Ayaan Ahmed
Bim Ajadi
Amal Al-Agroobi
Yaz Al-Shaater
Mo Ali
David Allain
Josh Allott
Julius Amedume
Matthew Amos
Natalia Andreadis
Francis Annan
Ben Anthony
Sallie Aprahamian
Ben Archard
Ian Aryeh
Jenny Ash
David Ashby
Jonny Ashton
Salvatore Assenza
Will Aspinall
Alix Austin
Steve Baker
Toby Baker
Kate Baller
Daniel Ball
Gilles Bannier
Georgi Banks-Davies
Tosca Barnes
Barbara Bargiel
Ollie Bartlett
James Batten
Benjie Bateman
Otto Bathurst
Chris Baugh
James Baudouy
David Beauchamp
Simon Bell
Mahalia Belo
Jessica Benhamou
Jamie Benyon
Sam Benstead
Makon Bessala
Liz Biggs
Terry Black
Farren Blackburn
Sam Blair
Dominic Bowles
Cara Bowen
Mark Brennan
Ellie Brent
Charlotte Bridger
Dominic Brigstocke
Gary Brooks
Dionne Bromfield
Alex Browning
Nicolas Brown
Aminah Brunt
Nathan Budd
Ed Bye
Therese Byrne
Dominic Callaghan
James Callum
Al Campbell
Topher Campbell
James Campbell
Jane Cameron
Dani Carpanen
Benjamin Caron
Sarah Carnie
Richie Carr
Matt Carter
Arthur Cary
Garfield Carrott
Justin Chadwick
Selina Chan
Mark Challender
Craig Chambers
Kate Cheeseman
Dino Charalambous
Mike Christie
Dan Clifton
Julian Clarke-Smith
Will Clough
Jack Cocker
Ben Cole
Rebecca Coley
Ian Colley
Dan Colbourne
Christian Collerton
Anna Collins
Amy Coop
Andy Cook
Nicholas Connor
Charlotte Conquest
Caroline Coombs
Graham Cooper
Vicki Cooper
Cassie Cornish-Trestrail
Stephen Cooter
Dominic Coyle
Ben Crichton
Charles Crich
John Crowley
Jonny Curtis
Tamsin Curry
Tim Dalby
Jimmy Dallas
Henry Dalton
James Dann
Abigail Dankwa
Noel Darcy
George Davies
Rowan Deacon
Nick Deacon
Marianna Dean
Peter Demetris
Mark Devlin
Andy Devonshire
Ian Denyer
Matthew Dolan
Malcolm Donkin
Jamie Donoughue
Sam Donovan
Kate Dooley
Kate Douglas-Walker
Max Duncan
Russell Eatough
Marilyn Edmond
John Edginton
Craig Ellis
Michael Engler
Jules Endersby
Avril Evans
Chloe Fairweather
Chris Faith
Leo Fawkes
Aurora Fearnley
Jack Fearnehough
Andrew Ferguson
Will Fegen
Jeanie Finlay
Lucy Forbes
Tommy Forbes
Julia Ford
Jamie Foster
Duncan Foster
Frankie Fuller
Ben Gosling Fuller
Alex Gabassi
Aashish Gadhvi
Winston Gallagher
Lottie Gammon
Nick Gardner
Rosie Gaunt-Mathieson
Tina Gharavi
Hassan Ghazi
Carolina Giammetta
Angus Gibson
Faye Gilbert
Jonathan Glazier
Sean Glynn
Ash Golder
Roger Goldby
Greg Goff
Jeanette Goulbourn
Martin Gorst
Marko Gowan
Alex Gower-Jackson
Charlie Graham
Peter Grant
Katie Greaves
Tony Grech-Smith
Roman Green
Nick Green
Gillian Greenwood
Stan Griffin
James Griffiths
Teresa Griffiths
Miguel Guerreiro
Andrew Haigh
Edward Hall
Jenna Hall
Lotus Hannon
Andrea Harkin
Sarah Harding
Ben Hardy
Corin Hardy
Nick Hardie
John Hardwick
Samantha Harrie
Paul Harrison
Graeme Hart
Phil Hawkins
James Hawes
Andy Hay
Paula Haydock
Brian Hayes
Zara Hayes
Elliot Hegarty
Richard Heeley
Natalie Hewit
Harry Hewland
Jim Hickey
Katie Hindley
Zoe Hines
Benjamin Hirsch
Simon Hipkins
Charlotte Hobday
Jessica Hobbs
Ellen Hobson
Tessa Hoffe
John Holdsworth
Julian Holmes
Thomas Holland
Matt Holt
Christopher Holt
Nick Holt
Brady Hood
Tom Hopgood
Stewart Houston
Debbie Howard
Miranda Howard-Williams
Menhaj Huda
Steve Hughes
Ben Hume-Paton
Simon Hynd
Megumi Inman
Alexander Jacob
Luke Jackson
Josh Jacobs
Amy Jenkins
Lucy Johnstone
Christine Johnston
Andrea Jones
Chris Jones
Ella Jones
Emma Jones
Myles Judd
Jermain Julien
Alex Kalymnios
Asif Kapadia
Dominic Keavey
Toby Kearton
Michael Keillor
James Kayler
Karen Kelly
Niamh Kennedy
Will Kenning
David Kerr
Elliot Kew
Georgina Kiedrowski
Guy King
Mikaela King
Brian Kirk
Vick Kisner
Itamar Klasmer
Brian Klein
Eddie Knox
Dee Koppang O'Leary
Luke Korzun Martin
Tinge Krishnan
Suri Krishnamma
Atem Kuol
Christine Lalla
Rob Lambie
Sam Lang
Samuel Lang
Dušan Lazarević
James Levelle
Rebekah Levine
Selina Lewis
Rob Lewis
Ed Lilly
Emma Lindley
Alec Lindsell
Anthony Linney
Sophia Lightfoot
Matt Lipsey
Max Lincoln
Jim Loach
Rachel Lob-Levyt
James Lord
Jonathan Low
Jeremy Lovering
Anke Lueddecke
Anna Lumsden
Antoine Lyons
Miriam Lyons
Euros Lyn
Kit Lynch-Robinson
Rhiannon MacDonald
Hettie Macdonald
Ursula Macfarlane
Keith Mackin
Gillies Mackinnon
AJ Maguire
Jane Magowan
Atul Malhotra
Munir Malik
Sarah Mann
Anabelle Marshall
Neil Marshall
Brian Henry Martin
Charles Martin
Darcia Martin
Rachael Martin
Sarmad Masud
Jan Matthys
Tom McKay
Leo McCrea
Abigail McCutcheon
Céin McGillicuddy
Karen McGann
William McGregor
Kerri McLean
Chris McMillan
Colm McCarthy
Mark McQueen
Alana Mcverry
Caroline Menzies
Anu Menon
Saul Metzstein
Charlotte Mikkelborg
Lynsey Miller
Sam Miller
Marion Milne
Michaela Moir
Alana Moreno
Karolina Mottram
Alex Mucadum
Lisa Mulcahy
Marc Munden
Nick Murphy
Shannon Murphy
Max Myers
Ali Naushahi
Bharat Nalluri
Amy Neil
Daniel Nettheim
Paul Newton
Max Newson
Beatrice Ni Bhroin
Afia Nkrumah
Michael Ogden
Fergus O'Brien
Mark O'Brien
Chris O'Donnell
Sarah O'Gorman
Daniel O'Hara
Alex Oldham
Sophie Oliver
Kwabena Oppong
Suemay Oram
Sam Ornbo
Audrey O'Reilly
Caroline O'Shaughnessy
Rita Osei
Libby Overton
Gillian Pachter
Jennie Paddon
Rhys Padarn
Ben Palmer
Deva Palmier
Kosta Papanicolas
Tom Parry
Siân Parry
Georgia Parris
Tom Parr
Nikki Parsons
Steven Parsons
Iain Paterson
Barnaby Peel
Nick Pearson
Richard Pearson
Richard Pengelley
Richard Pepe
Lee Phillips
Simon Phillips
Anthony Philipson
Alex Pillai
Nick Pin
Matt Pinder
Marcus Plowright
Wes Pollitt
Geoff Posner
Stuart Powell
Charlie Preston
Lewis Price
Mark Price
Chris Price-Morgan
Jonathan Profaska
Graham Proud
Anthony Pyke
Norah Quartey
Virginia Quinn
Myriam Raja
Adam Randall
Jack Rampling
Diccon Ramsay
Tom Ranson
Becky Read
Ben Reid
Mike Reilly
Barney Reisz
Marcus Relton
Emma Reynolds
Jeremy Rieder
Merlyn Rice
Clare Richards
Jon Richards
Erik Richter Strand
Paul Riordan
Jonathan Robinson
Ben Roe
Paul Romero Mendez
Liam Royales
Strahila Royachka
James Routh
Rebecca Rycroft
Zam Salim
David Sant
Benedict Sanderson
Rosie Saunders
Ollie Scarth
Alex Scott
Tim Searle
Richard Senior
Luke Sewell
Catey Sexton
Jasleen Sethi
Penelope Shales-Slyne
Dawn Shadforth
John Shackleton
James Shelton
Jennifer Sheridan
Eeva Sigurdardottir
Isabelle Sieb
Sunnie Sidhu
Kate Siney
Nicola Silk
Dave Skinner
Emma Slifkin
Alice Smith
Dan Smith
Seb Smith
Steve Smith
Julann Smyth
Paul Sng
Jo Southwell
John Spencer
Simon Staffurth
Eddie Stafford
Phil Stein
Ed St Giles
Dominic Stephenson
Jonathan Stow
Peter Strachan
John Strickland
James Strong
Clare Sturges
Mat Stimpson
Emma Sullivan
Rachna Suri
Stewart Svaasand
Chris Sweeney
Paul Tanter
Charlie Targett-Adams
Danny Tate
Ben Taylor
Paul Taylor
Sebastian Thiel
Rajesh Thind
Chloe Thomas
Delyth Thomas
Anna Thomson
Laura Thomson
Barnaby Thompson
Iain Thompson
Paul Thompson
Talya Tibbon
Owen Tooth
Luned Tonderai
Warren Townsend
Alice Troughton
Robin Trump
Oli Tridgell
David Tucker
Susan Tully
Emily Turner
Tom Turner
John Tween
Tim Usborne
Kasia Uscinska
Richard van't Riet
Tim van Someren
Ed Venner
Chris Vila
Daniela Volker
Nicole Volavka
Paul Walker
David Walley
Nour Wazzi
Luke Watson
Christian Watt
Ashley Way
Martin Webb
Nick Webb
Steve Webb
William Webb
Paul Wells
Phill Wesson
Michelle Wheatley
Nick White
Susanna White
Gavin Whitehead
David Whitney
Sebastian Whyte
Nick Wickham
Lucy Wilcox
Gill Wilkinson
Nick Wilkinson
Neil Wilmer
Paul Wilmshurst
Emma Willis
Barbara Wiltshire
Adam Wimpenny
Jason Wingard
Andy Wilson
Jeff Wilson
Mark Williams
Phillip Wood
Andy Wood
Ellena Wood
Nick Wood
Stephen Woolfenden
Jill Worsley
Naomi Wright
Richard Wyllie
Will Yapp
Ivan Youlden
Jo Young
Ross Young