Action Packed Year For Pact

The UK trade association representing and promoting the commercial interests of independent feature film, television, digital, children's and animation media companies, Pact, has been reviewing its work in 2011.
A Press statement this week said Pact was able to save members money by successfully concluding a three-year television deal with Directors UK that retained existing blanket arrangements.
"We opened new opportunities to access additional revenue by successfully campaigning for product placement to be introduced on to UK TV screens.
"We helped Pact members access international markets by continuing to run the UK Indies pavilion at MIP, which, at the two markets this year, generated over £40m of revenue.
"In addition we successfully negotiated an increase in the amounts that commercial broadcasters will pay for your programmes being used on their VOD services," the statement continued.
"We offered a range of opportunities for members to meet and engage with commissioners.
"We organised a two day meet the commissioner day with Channel 4 which over 200 Pact members per day got the inside track on what the channel wants to commission.
"We also organised a Global Formal Mentoring scheme to give access to commissioners from the BBC and BBC Worldwide."
Further, pact said that at the current time where productions which reflect Britain’s diverse mix of people, Pact’s Diversity Adviser has held 328 meetings with production companies so far, to help develop their diversity strategies.
"We also launched the “Made by a Scottish Indie” scheme with high profile events attended by a range of commissioners at the Edinburgh TV Festival and the Houses of Parliament."
On the policy front Pact has been working very hard to make sure the forthcoming Communications Act doesn’t undermine intellectual property – something that we also underlined in our formal response and campaigning activity around the Hargreaves Review.
For film we have been successfully campaigning for Government to review how to use public support to support sustainable UK film businesses.
This was supported by Government in last month’s announcement of the extension of the Film Tax credit.
Pact’s lawyers have been extremely busy this year too: "We’ve been working closely with the Serious Fraud Office on the interpretation and implementation of the Bribery Act – looking into interpretation and impact for programme making in the UK.
"We’ve also been administering the new Tier One immigration ‘exceptional talent’ applications by acting as an assessor on behalf of the Arts Council of England for the film, television, animation, post production and visual effects industry."
"We continued to help expand the digital sector by saving our members money by successfully campaigning for a fairer charging structure with ATVOD (the regulator for IPTV).
"We also successful campaigned on behalf of digital producers to ensure they now retain their own IP rights for any work done with the public sector.
Pact said its Business Affairs team have also had an extremely busy year responding to over 100 members’ queries a day – and continuing to provide our suite of downloadable, up to date contracts and agreements, all included in the price of your membership.
"In recent months we have helped our members with Option licensing, copyright and insurance issues, Music Right queries, understanding Artists contracts and helped resolve disputes between members and thirds parties.
"We also ran over 20 free events this year helping you keep your staff abreast of industry changes without having to pay any additional costs," the statement concluded.
(BMcC)