FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS for Producers

For broadcast year 2023, the AGICOA Europe Brussels fee was set at 8.12% .
AGICOA Europe Brussels’ management fee is reviewed and approved each year by the Board of Directors.

The fees is deducted from the total amounts of royalties put into distribution, before payment to the rightsholders.

The royalties are usually paid during the year following the end of the broadcasting year. For example, if a work was broadcast in 2022, AGICOA Europe Brussels will pay you in 2023. This timeframe may however vary.

The registration with AGICOA Europe Brussels is free. Only management fees will be deducted from your due royalties [Refer to the FAQ: What management fee does AGICOA Europe Brussels derive from royalty payments? ].

Once you declare your works with us, we shall claim your royalties not only in Belgium, but also in every country where the AGICOA Alliance or other AGICOA partner organizations have concluded license agreements. One single registration can ensure worldwide coverage. Check here where we operate to represent you and defend your rights.

As a rule, you are entitled to claim royalties within three years following the broadcast of your works. In other words, you must register and then declare your works with AGICOA Europe Brussels within three years until 31 December of the broadcasting year of your works in order to be entitled to payment.

For example, to benefit from royalties collected for a given broadcast year (e.g. 2022) your declaration should be made prior to the end of the third year following this broadcast year (e.g. before 31 December 2025).

AGICOA Europe Brussels repertoire covers any audiovisual content subject to copyright protection, such as feature films, telefilms, series, documentaries, short films, animation. However, it does not include news programs (including sports news), live sportscasts and other live events, teleshopping, weather forecasts, infomercials, commercials, and trailers.

AGICOA Europe Brussels monitors about 29 TV channels in Belgium. Through the AGICOA Alliance and other partner organizations, this numbers amounts to 222. The list of “TV channels used for royalty allocations” is available only to Declarants on our Web Declarant portal – IRRIS Web.

AGICOA Europe Brussels collects the retransmission rights and the communication rights to the public by direct injection [Refer to FAQ “What are retransmission rights?”] as well as the audiovisual media services rights associated to them. If your work is only transmitted, either via a TV channel’s own website or via on-demand and streaming platforms such as YouTube or Netflix, AGICOA Europe Brussels will collect no royalty for you.

In countries where collective management is not mandatory, you can manage your rights individually. In Belgium, where collective management is mandatory, AGICOA Europe Brussels shall be deemed to represent you when it negotiates licenses agreements for the use of your works.. The rights management process being often complex, collective management organizations [Read our blog article: “What is collective management?“] like AGICOA Europe Brussels enable rightsholders to easily receive royalties’ payments.

In the event of conflicting declarations in respect of the same audiovisual work, you will receive a conflict notification and AGICOA Europe Brussels shall initiate a conflict resolution procedure.

AGICOA Europe Brussels does not collect from on-demand and streaming platforms such a YouTube, Netflix, Amazon Prime, etc.

According to the mandate [Refer to FAQ : What is a General Mandate and Voluntary Mandate? What is the difference? ] you have granted, AGICOA Europe Brussels will pay you the royalties collected for the digital services offered by the operators. These digital services consist mainly of on-demand media services such as catch-up services and other time-shifted viewing services (Start from the beginning, Pause and resume, Network Personal Video Recorder services, …).

The General Mandate is mandatory. It means that the rightsholder exclusively authorizes AGICOA Europe Brussels to grant or refuse licenses and to collect royalties for the following exploitation of the audiovisual works that fall under AGICOA Europe Brussels’repertoire, included in television programs intended for the reception by the public:
– Simultaneous, full, unchanged, and continuous retransmission by cable, satellite or by any similar means (such as mobile retransmission or retransmission over an internet access carried out in a managed environment),
– Transmission of the signals that the operator has obtained from a broadcasting organization by direct injection, whether this transmission is made by cable, satellite or by any other similar means,
– Communication to the public by hotels, hospitals, nursing homes, prisons, and other institutions.

The Voluntary Mandates are the mandates you may grant to AGICOA Europe Brussels on a discretionary basis to license and collect royalties for time-shifted viewing services such as Catch-up TV, TV Start from the beginning, Pause and Resume, Preview TV, Network personal video recorder.

The Voluntary Mandates may also include communication in public areas (e.g. bars and cafés) of the audiovisual works included in television programs.
There is no limitation as to the number of Voluntary Mandates that you might wish to grant to AGICOA Europe Brussels.

Retransmission rights are those rights that arise when an operator makes a secondary use [Refer to FAQ “What is the difference between the primary rights and the secondary rights of the producer?] of an audiovisual work. They cover the simultaneous, full, unchanged and continuous retransmission by cable, satellite or by any similar means (such as mobile retransmission or retransmission over an internet access carried out in a managed environment).
In the European Union, these rights are subject to mandatory collective management [Read our blog article: “What is collective management?“].
AGICOA Europe Brussels also manages the rights covering the transmission by an operator of the signals that this operator has obtained from a broadcasting organization by direct injection, whether this transmission is made by cable, satellite or by any other similar means.
In Belgium these rights are subject to mandatory collective management [Read our blog article: “What is collective management?“].

The producer’s primary rights to an audiovisual work are the rights that a broadcasting organization must acquire from the producer to be able to include his/her audiovisual work in the programs of one or another of its TV channels made available to the public in one or another country.

The producer’s secondary rights to an audiovisual work are the rights that an operator must acquire from the producer to distribute to the public the TV channels of the broadcasting organization that includes the audiovisual work in question, regardless whether this distribution is through retransmission or a transmission of the signals received by direct injection.
In Belgium, AGICOA Europe Brussels shall be deemed to manage [Read our blog article: “What is collective management?“] these rights on behalf of the producer, from licensing them to the operators, to collecting the corresponding royalties from them and then paying the producer.

No, AGICOA Europe Brussels does not license music rights. AGICOA Europe Brussels licenses the use of audiovisual works only.

Your details as well as the audiovisual works and rights you have declared with AGICOA Europe Brussels are available online on our Web Declarant portal – IRRIS Web

Please return to following documents to AGICOA Europe Brussels via the Contact page:

• Completed and signed Declarant Registration Form
• Copy of bank account statement listing beneficiary name and account number (IBAN, SWIFT/BIC or other), in addition to the bank name (financial transaction information can be redacted).
  
• Copy of an official identification document for each contact person.
  
• Copy of the register of commerce (for businesses only).

You can declare your audiovisual works and rights with AGICOA Europe Brussels at any time.

Keep in mind however that to be processed in the first distribution, works and rights must be declared by 31 December of the broadcasting year for which the royalties were collected.

If you have not declared your works and rights by 31 December of the broadcasting year for which the royalties were collected, you will still be entitled to payment of royalties as long as you have made the declaration within a deadline of three years following 31 December of the broadcasting year for which the royalties were collected. Royalties will be lost if you miss the three-year deadline.

For example, to benefit from royalties collected for a given broadcast year (e.g. 2022) your declaration should be made prior to the end of the third year following this broadcast year (e.g. before 31 December 2025).

AGICOA Europe Brussels offers four ways to declare your works and rights.
Select what way is the most appropriate to your environment and needs.

Web declarant portal – IRRIS Web, the web-based platform that provides you with a single access point portal to declare, update and/or query your works and rights as well as to review your related remunerations over the web;

Electronic declaration files in Excel to import works and rights information between your Company’s database and AGICOA’s to declare your works and rights;

Electronic declaration files in XML to import works and rights information between your Company’s database and AGICOA’s to declare and/or to update your works and rights;

Declaration forms in PDF that you will fill in from your computer and send back to AGICOA Europe Brussels.

Your Portfolio Manager will guide you to choose the most suitable declaration mode for you.

If you receive royalties from another Collective Management Organization for the use of your audiovisual works in Belgium only, you can still register with AGICOA Europe Brussels. We shall then collect royalties in all other countries [Refer to Collection Process page].

Broadcasters are entitled to register with AGICOA Europe Brussels as producers of audiovisual works. However, broadcasters are not entitled to claim royalties for the transmission of their works on their own TV channel(s).