Campaign Profile

560 Media director of IP and business affairs Andrew Yeates explains why the issue of secondary rights to content is creeping up the agenda, as production companies and distributors start to recognise their value in these straitened times.

With commissions hard to come by and production costs on the increase, content studios have been looking closely at ways to squeeze extra revenues from their rights.

The launch of FAST channels, content distribution via social platforms and the resurgence of windowing are all part of this emphasis on exploiting owned IP.

In the quest to maximise revenues, a crucial opportunity that is sometimes neglected is the value of secondary rights. Although potentially lucrative, these are rarely front of mind and can be difficult to access without the right expertise and resource.

One company that has spent many years evangelising about the importance of secondary rights is 560 Media.

Founded in 2016 by CEO John O’Sullivan, the boutique operation reckons to have recovered many millions of pounds for content owners, including BBC Studios, Warner Bros Discovery and Fifth Season. Recent client additions have included Los Angeles-based companies Voltage Pictures and Content Partners and UK-based producers STV Studios and Keo Films.

560 Media director of IP and business affairs Andrew Yeates says the 560 proposition is simple enough – even if the task of unlocking secondary rights revenues is complex and nuanced.

Yeates, who is also a director of the British Copyright Council, explains: “Our primary goal is to help producers and distributors collect their secondary revenues, revenues that they cannot collect themselves without a lot of additional effort.”

For anyone who is not clear about what a secondary right is, Yeates says it is a catch-all term that covers several common scenarios. “Secondary rights refer to situations where programmes are distributed and licensed to broadcasters, but those broadcasters have no ultimate control over where that programme is used.”

A common example is where laws in individual territories allow additional service providers to pick up the primary licensed signal and re-transmit it to users of their own services. Where the commercial value of this is not part of the original licence, says Yeates, local laws often require a rights fee is paid. Typically, this fee is paid to a designated body called a collecting society that carries out the collective management of copyright and related rights within its own territory.

Another scenario where the issue of secondary rights arises is when content is being used in schools, government buildings or commercial outlets like hotels and bars. “Once again,” says Yeates, “there’s an opportunity for producers and distributors to pick up some extra money for these rights if they know how to access it.”

This is where 560 Media comes in. “It’s not practical for an IP owner go to chasing this money by themselves,” says Yeates, “It’s just too time-consuming. Instead, they provide us with details of their programming catalogues. We register these catalogues with all the collecting societies that are responsible for paying out revenue to producers. We then monitor that relationship and make sure we collect as much as we can.”

As 560 Media’s client-base demonstrates, major global players have recognised the added value that the agile outfit brings.

BBC Studios’ global director of talent accounting and rights negotiations Nikki Touchard is one of several executives at large enterprises who endorse 560’s specialist skillset. “Secondary rights are a crucial revenue stream for the BBC, making it vital to partner with the right collection agency. 560 Media’s innovative strategies, expert insights and deep market knowledge have significantly enhanced our collections. We are thrilled to be working with them,” she says.

Yeates says that 560 Media is especially adept at navigating the complexity of large multi-territory businesses. “Fremantle is a good example because they consist of so many companies. We work closely with the Fremantle distribution team, but also with producers within the group that have retained their secondary rights,” he says.

At the same time, he stresses that there is money to be made for small to medium-sized media enterprises, with the likes of Hat Trick Productions, Avalon and Agatha Christie Productions also on the roster. “The core proviso is that companies need to be in control of their rights,” he says. “But with this in mind, producers need to realise that no matter how small they are, this is extra revenue that goes straight to their bottom line. And if you don’t have somebody looking out for it then you miss out. That’s not a situation any rights owner wants to be in, given the current climate.”

For companies unfamiliar with the way secondary rights work, 560 ensures that it is available to provide ongoing support. Eva Kelly, head of rights at Agatha Christie Productions, says the 560 team is always on hand “to provide advice and guidance above and beyond the day-to-day administrative responsibilities.”

Key commitments from 560 include transparency about the flow of revenues into client coffers. “The client relationship is critically important to a business like 560,” explains Yeates. “So we have a portal that explains to clients exactly where we’ve collected money from and which categories of distribution rights have applied. They get monthly or quarterly reports, but they can also look at the data as it comes in and ask us questions.”

“One of our top priorities for 2025 is to keep investing in our system so that clients really understand the collection process and we are able to get on to collecting societies to make sure they pay us quickly and efficiently.”

Europe has been a key region for 560, largely because of the way cable and broadcast evolved in parallel across the continent. But increasingly, the company sees the Americas as an opportunity to expand its business. Last year, it appointed US-based executive Shawn White as director of commercial affairs, with the goal of tapping into new business opportunities in North America. As referenced above, new US client wins include Voltage Pictures and Content Partners.

At the same time, Yeates says Latin America is also emerging as a key market. “The laws are changing, so money is starting to flow in several Latin American countries. We’re working with collecting societies in countries like Mexico on behalf of producers,” he says.

On the surface, setting up agreements with collecting agencies may look like a relatively straightforward transactional relationship. But Yeates says it requires deep understanding of complicated copyright scenarios. He cites examples like Private Copy Levies, which are fees charged on the sale of items that permit users to make copies of copyright works, for example, smart phones, USB sticks and computer tablets.

Educational and governmental usage has also become more complicated in the era of widespread digital media distribution. In many jurisdictions, public bodies are permitted to use content without consent from rights holders under locally formulated “copyright exceptions or limitations.” However, there is a nuanced line between where this is acceptable and where some recompense is due to rights holders.

More broadly, the fragmented nature of global channel distribution means that 560 Media needs to cover a lot of ground. “No other agent provides the coverage we do,” says Yeates. “We track thousands of channels globally. We also subscribe to data services to manage, protect and monitor our clients’ rights.”

In addition to ensuring market coverage, investment in data means 560 Media can tailor solutions to individual client needs. It also means the company stays ahead of changes in the landscape. “The sophistication of cable relays and direct injection of broadcast into secondary services has evolved,” observes Yeates. “And legal systems around the world are constantly changing. We monitor all of these changes to make sure we recover as much as we can for producers.”

An added complexity is the emergence of a new set of outlets – streamers and social media platforms like YouTube. “On the one hand, the global nature of the streamers means fewer opportunities for secondary rights to apply,” says Yeates. “But what we’re saying to governments and other stakeholders is that unanticipated forms of distribution might come off the back of this, for example, hotels or other public places.”

Then, of course, there is the emerging impact of generative artificial intelligence (AI) on rights. It’s early days, says Yeates, but the warning lights are flashing. “AI can offer assistive tools, which producers use for the production and distribution of their own work. But there is something of a concern around the development of generic AI systems by third parties that ingest works and apply a producer’s rights without their consent,” he says.

Still on AI, Yeates also says that securing greater transparency for creative rights owners when an AI developer wants to scrape content for commercial uses is vital. “This transparency should support the development and application of effective generative AI licensing solutions. 560 Media has been engaging with the current UK consultation on copyright and AI to address points like this,” he says.

Yeates, however, is keen not to over-complicate the business of secondary rights for producers and distributors. His message to prospective new clients at the London TV Screenings is simple: “Just remember to reserve your secondary rights when you’re doing deals, so that you can keep the door open to collecting these significant revenues.”