IMRO

Annual Report 2001

Services Department
Eamon Shackleton :
Director of Services

The Services Department is primarily responsible for international, broadcasting and legal affairs. In addition, it provides support and expertise in the area of communications and research.

The year 2001 was a good year for IMRO on the broadcasting and international fronts. With the exception of national radio, increases in revenue were achieved.

Media

Television
Revenue from RTE (including public service radio), TG4 and TV3 totalled €3.5 million, slightly up on 2000. This result is satisfactory considering the difficult market conditions for TV during 2001

Independent Radio

National
Revenue received from this area showed a significant decrease over 2000 figures, with a total of €598,367 compared to €753,893 in 2000.

Local
Local radio can be broken down into two distinct parts - city stations and other non city. In revenue terms, the amount recieved from the 3 city stations in 2001 represented 53% of the total income from local radio. Revenue for local radio was €1,509,085 in 2001 a 21% increase over the 2000 figure of €1,246,327

Satellite Services
Cable operators in Ireland carry the primary responsibility for the payment of royalties in respect of the cable right for music carried on their cable system. Under the IMRO agreement, they pay royalties in respect of the terrestrial broadcasters, BBC, ITV and Channel 4.

However, satellite broadcasters whose services are included in the package offered by cable operators prefer to provide to the cable operators a 'royalty cleared' arrangement. Consequently, IMRO has entered into a series of agreements with all the satellite service providers whose programmes are available on Irish cable systems.

Cable
IMRO collectively administers all rights contained in UK terrestrial broadcasts that are simultaneously retransmitted in Ireland over cable networks. Those represented by IMRO are:

In 2001, IMRO collected a total of €7,760,575 in respect of these rights, 10.24% of which was in respect of the cable right in music and was distributable to all those IMRO members and members of overseas societies whose works were included in the broadcasts.

On-line Music Use
A total of €27,788 was generated under this heading during 2001. Of the amount received 56% was in respect of the making available right in ring tones.

Organisations

CISAC
CISAC is the internationl federation of performing right societies and during the year, IMRO continued to participate prominently in its activities.

GESAC
GESAC is the economic interest grouping of performing rights societies within the European Union. Its principal function is to interact with the European Commission regarding intellectual property legislation being brought forward by the Commission, in order to ensure that the rights of those represented by the societies receive the maximum protection.

The principal benefit of membership of GESAC is the comprehensive information disseminated by it on European legal matters. In February 2001, the Director of Services was invited to Moscow to present a paper on the creation of an effective copyright regime in Russia. The invitation was made under the auspices of the European Commission and was organised by GESAC.

Copyright Association of Ireland
IMRO continues to play a prominent part in the Copyright Association of Ireland (CAI), the organisation of legal academics, lawyers and those involved in copyright, which has as its purpose the improvement of awareness and knowledge of copyright throughout the community.

International

Sandra Gunn :
Manager, International Affairs

The success of Irish music in overseas markets is reflected in international revenue, which has been increasing steadily since IMRO was established in 1995.

Revenue reached its highest level in 2001 reflecting increased revenues from societies that have not traditionally been major revenue sources for IMRO repertoire and in addition to continued strong performance in the UK, US, France and Germany. Revenues from Japan, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands and Australia were also particularly strong, with revenue from Japan reaching an all time high in 2001 and expected to grow further in 2002. International revenues for 2002 are expected to continue this pattern of strong growth.

Revenue received by IMRO for its members from overseas societies in 2001 amounted to €2,983,613. This represented a 5% increase over 2000 when the amount received was €2,836,907.

Technical Visits

In support of IMRO's stated objective of increasing international revenue returned to IMRO members for exploitation of their works overseas, Sandra Gunn, IMRO's Manager, International Affairs, carried out a series of technical visits to some of IMRO's sister societies to find out more about the practices and procedures used by those societies to license and distribute royalties and how this affects IMRO members earnings. Details of these visits have appeared in IMRO news during the year and they follow on from visits to ASCAP, BMI and PRS in the year 2000. Societies visited in 2001 were: GEMA (Germany), SACEM (France), SABAM (Belgium), KODA (Denmark), SUISA (Switzerland), STIM (Sweden) and SGAE (Spain).