Rights Payments

Is my work eligible for rights payments?

We collect and distribute rights payments owed to the principal director — or directors — of a programme.

Which works are eligible to receive money depends on where, how and when they were used.

The table below outlines the works we cover in our UK and international distributions, why we're able to collect for them, and when we can pay the resulting rights payments.

For more information on the payments we administer, click here.

Types of payment we distribute	UK distribution (Repeats)	UK distribution (Sales)	International distributions
How is my work being used?	Repeat transmissions on channels owned by BBC, ITV, Channel 4, 5, S4C and Sky UK	UK and international sales and media sales	Various uses, including private copying, cable and satellite retransmission, educational recording, lending and mechanical rights
Why are we collecting payments?	Contractual arrangement. Directors UK members (temporarily) assign their copyright to Directors UK		Legislation and copyright law in certain countries allows the CMOs (collective management organisations) of those countries to collect on behalf of Directors UK
What’s covered?	Programmes made after 1st July 2001 and commissioned by the following UK broadcasters: BBC, ITV, Channel 4, 5, Sky UK and S4C		It varies by country, depending on the individual agreements and distribution policies of the CMO in that territory
What don’t we cover?	Programmes made before 2001 Programmes not commissioned by the relevant broadcasters News, sports, films Programmes made under a staff contract issued by a UK broadcaster Channels owned by BBC studios (eg. BBC Earth, CBeebies and UKTV channels - Dave, Gold, Alibi etc)		News and sports
When do we send out rights payments?	The main UK distribution is held in January each year There is a top-up distribution held 18 months later (in July) to distribute any money remaining from that year’s allocation		Distributions are held twice a year around May and October