Pact’s legal & business affairs team currently has representation on the AGICOA board, the Albert Project Board, JIGS and various other committees to ensure Pact has a voice in negotiations. They are also in constant communication with broadcasters to negotiate terms of trade on behalf of Pact members.

A Decade of Success - The Impact of Terms of Trade:

July 2013 marked the ten year anniversary of the statutory framework set out within the Communications Act 2003 that established the requirement for codes of practice governing how the UK’s public service broadcasters (i.e. the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5, collectively referred to as ‘the UK PSBs’) commission programmes from independent producers. The implementation of these codes of practice ultimately led to the introduction of negotiated ‘terms of trade’ into the UK market, a system of agreed trading principles that sets out the rights that are available to broadcasters under their primary commissioning licence and the revenue sharing arrangements between broadcasters and producers that relate to the subsequent use of their commissioned IP.

The terms of trade, introduced following the 2003 legislation relate specifically to the main PSB networks (BBC1, ITV1, Channel 4 and Channel 5) and to the digital channels of the BBC and Channel 4. In order to qualify for these negotiated terms of trade, producers must be eligible as ‘qualifying’ independents, meaning that they are not wholly or partly owned (to a 25% threshold) by another broadcaster operating in the UK market. As a result, independent producers in the UK must be truly independent from UK broadcasters.

The introduction of negotiated terms of trade was in many ways a watershed moment for the UK content industries, allowing independent producers to transition from being a relatively small part of the UK commissioning market to building international businesses that – in many cases – are global leaders in their field. As the UK economy is becoming increasingly driven by IP-based enterprises, the successes and economic contribution of the UK independent production sector plays a key part in the promotion of the UK’s creative industries internationally and underpins the UK’s attractiveness as a hub for international productions.

A Decade of Success Report

Pact has a resource library of downloadable contracts, industry information, and guidance to help all stages of your production run smoothly. Our contracts are constantly updated to reflect the most recent legislation and provide an invaluable resource for our members.

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We are in constant communication with our members to keep them informed about changes in terms of trade or to give legal advice as and when needed. Our legal team runs regular surgeries to give much needed advice to members, and are contactable by phone and email throughout the day.

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