The U.K.’s top directors have banded together to send a clear message to streamers: “Royalties are a lifeblood.”
An open letter published by copyright management organization Directors U.K. boasts signatories including Slow Horses helmers Saul Metzstein, James Hawes, and Jeremy Lovering, Andor and Sherlock‘s Benjamin Caron, The Crown‘s Erik Richter Strand, Jessica Hobbs, and Sam Donovan (also a director on Severance), as well as Black Mirror‘s Sam Miller, Colm McCarthy, and John Crowley, who is best known for directing 2024 film We Live in Time with Andrew Garfield and Florence Pugh.
Poldark‘s Joss Agnew, Blue Lights director Gilles Bannier, and Otto Bathurst of Peaky Blinders have also joined in challenging the streaming platforms.
“The global streaming services enjoy huge success, critically and commercially, and your catalogues are enjoyed by audiences around the world,” the letter begins. “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.”
The directors explain the U.K.’s public service broadcasters — the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 — contribute to a scheme that allows them to be paid copyright royalties for repeat showings and sales of the programs. “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.”
However, the streamers have still not signed up to any form of royalty or residual scheme for the benefit of U.K. directors despite having operated for over 10 years in Britain. This is also despite the fact that “we are legally one of the original owners of the copyright in the programmes we direct for these companies,” as well as efforts to negotiate, the letter says.
“While we applaud the investments you make in original U.K. production, we cannot help but note the contrast between your enthusiastic take-up of U.K. tax incentive schemes and the very slow pace of discussions on an appropriate royalty scheme for U.K. directors,” they continue.
“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.”
The statement ends with a comparison to the U.S., Latin America and other countries in Europe, where practices have evolved to secure ongoing payments for directors through either collective bargaining or copyright laws. “Please treat us with equal respect,” it ends. Read the letter in full here.
