Repeat Fees!

Just finished reading Graham Lord's excellent 2002 biog. of Arthur Lowe, and am somewhat surprised at the size of the repeat fees then and the ones that are still being garnered to this day!

When you take how many actors were involved and then the writers etc. it made me sit up and think My God! How much does it cost just to show one repeat?? And how long do these royalties go on for?

Two passage quotes:-

Even in 2000 Ian Lavender was still being paid between £600 and £1600 for each repeated episode, and "Arthur got six or seven times more than me" Lavender told me. "We've all made more out of the repeats than we did out of the original programmes". Laurence Newman (his accountant) confirmed it: "Arthur earned more after he died than when he was alive"

In 2001 both the BBC and satellite TV were still broadcasting prime-time Dad's Army repeats and David (step son) and Stephen (son) were still sharing Arthur's huge posthumous royalties." If the BBC repeats an episode of Dad's Army Arthur's estate would get about £1,350", Bill Pertwee told me.

Nice work if you can get it, hey.

I'm no expert by any means but I think fees in general have reduced nowadays

So do Charles Dickens' descendants for e.g. still get royalties?

Plus, that God guy - made a killing out of The Bible.

By the way, I just posted something in critique, would appreciate some feedback from you if you fancy having a look.

And with the BBC that all comes out of our licence fee.

Quote: Mikey88 @ 1st October 2014, 9:56 PM BST

By the way, I just posted something in critique, would appreciate some feedback from you if you fancy having a look.

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Off Topic!

Shhhhh!

Quote: Hercules Grytpype Thynne @ 1st October 2014, 9:33 PM BST

So do Charles Dickens' descendants for e.g. still get royalties?

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No, because such works are now out of copyright.

Quote: Hercules Grytpype Thynne @ 1st October 2014, 10:16 AM BST

Just finished reading Graham Lord's excellent 2002 biog. of Arthur Lowe, and am somewhat surprised at the size of the repeat fees then and the ones that are still being garnered to this day!

When you take how many actors were involved and then the writers etc. it made me sit up and think My God! How much does it cost just to show one repeat?? And how long do these royalties go on for?

View original

I won't tell you how much it costs the BBC to repeat a single episode of Blackadder. Safe to say it's a seriously staggering amount.

Strictly speaking, copyright (and thus royalties) on TV programmes lasts for 50 years from the end of the year in which the programme was first broadcast. However, with huge changes to the marketplace in the past couple of decades, particularly with regard to the home entertainment market (i.e. DVDs and now streaming), it is my understanding that such royalty payments - often known as residuals - have been comprehensively renegotiated with the various unions.

Without going and trying to do some searching I wouldn't know exactly how long such payments are now expected to continue, nor how the republication of those materials in different formats (DVD from TV broadcast, for example) may count toward extending any such lengths of time, but I think it'd be a good bet that Ian Lavender's eventual estate will continue to get payments for quite a while.

This is very good news for those appearing in shows that seem to be repeated in perpetuity; like in Fawlty Towers, Porridge, etc, which seemed to be almost permanently onscreen for a long time---I assume the deceased actors' 'estates' recieve posthumous performance fees?!

Not so good news for those appearing in the Goodies or Up Pompeii, which hardly gets a look-in, repeatwise.

Spot on. In fact often star actors can have (had?) veto over a series being repeated or released - you can imagine the animosity that can lead to with supporting players and guests.

Who do Gold pay? The original broadcaster or the actors?

And Drama are in on it now as well,

Er, I would imagine it's included in the licence fee they have to pay to broadcast the shows in the first place.

Quote: Aaron @ 2nd October 2014, 12:57 AM BST

Spot on. In fact often star actors can have (had?) veto over a series being repeated or released - you can imagine the animosity that can lead to with supporting players and guests.

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The most famous case probably being between Rodney Bewes and James Bolam re Likely Lads and all over nothing really.

Bewes let slip in an interview that Bolam was going to be a father, at which he took the hump being a very private man.

Took 30/40 years to resolve after Bolam refused the release of the TV series, which didn't help Bewes' financial situation.

Quote: Oldrocker @ 2nd October 2014, 1:04 AM BST

Who do Gold pay? The original broadcaster or the actors?

And Drama are in on it now as well,

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I was told by an actor whose seventies sitcom was repeated on Gold that the fees were so low it cost him more in replying to the fanmail it generated.

I just tumbled that shows like Porridge (in particular), the Good Life and Fawlty Towers (all shows which were repeated ad-infinitum) had a relatively small cast in comparison to the likes of the Goodies (which often had loads of incidental supporting characters in the outdoor scenes especially) or It Ain't Half Hot Mum, which clearly had a large cast:

---perhaps the tight-fisted Beeb simply ignored these shows (as regarding repeating them) on the grounds there were simply too many supporting actors to shell out performing rights payments for.

Quote: Tursiops @ 2nd October 2014, 8:56 AM BST

I was told by an actor whose seventies sitcom was repeated on Gold that the fees were so low it cost him more in replying to the fanmail it generated.

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This is true.
Artist were sold down the river when the BBC & ITV struck a deal with the non-terrestrial channels.
Gold etc get them for peanuts.