France's SACD revenues down 8.2% to €209.8 million in 2020

By Emmanuel Legrand

French society for drama authors SACD has announced an 8.2% decline in collections for 2020, compared to 2019, to €209.8 million. In 2020, SACD distributed €202.7m to its members, down 12.7% compared to 2019.

  Like other societies in France, SACD's performance rights revenues were impacted by the lockdown, which brought to a halt public performances of drama works. At €33.9m, revenues from public performance were down 51% compared to 2019's €68.8m. "Unsurprisingly, the accounts show a sharply declining level of activity in performing arts due to the health crisis and the closure of theaters," said SACD in a statement.

  However, SACD other streams of revenues, such as audiovisual, cinema and online collections increased by 10% to €175.4m, "thanks to the good performance of general agreements negotiated with broadcasters and platforms," said the Paris-based organisation. 

Guarantee fair remuneration

  Several major contracts were signed in 2020 and early 2021, notably with French commercial broadcaster TF1, public TV groupFrance TV, and subscription TV CANAL+, as well as with Amazon Prime Video, and new SVoD platform Salto. 

  "All of these contracts recognise the economic value of SACD's repertoire and guarantee authors fair remuneration for the use of their works," said SACD.

  "Throughout this period, SACD has shown to be responsive, agile and built on solid foundations. As of March 2020, the company was in working order to face the crisis," wrote SACD President Jean-Xavier de Lestrade and Director General Pascal Rogard in the foreword to the society's annual report. 

Tough decision paid off

  They continued: "With the adoption of a drastic savings plan, the generalisation of teleworking and the activation of short-time working for nearly a third of its workforce, SACD has taken some tough decisions. They have paid off. The sharp reduction in operating costs that they enabled generated a management surplus, immediately redistributed to the authors via a reimbursement of statutory withholding of €1.2 million."

  In 2020, through the emergency funds it manages, the SACD was able to help more than 1,000 authors for a total amount of €2.6m euros in addition to those who had access to the State Solidarity Fund. "Supporting authors affected by the crisis has been the core mission of SACD in 2020 and remains to this day," said the organisation.