UK Tribunal Backs PRS in Cinema Music Royalty Dispute

UK cinemas will pay more for the music played in their venues after the UK Copyright Tribunal sided with PRS for Music in a dispute with the UK Cinema Association.

PRS for Music, the organisation that collects royalties for songwriters and composers when their work is played in public, announced on 12 October that the tribunal had approved changes to its cinema tariff, known as Tariff C Music Business Worldwide. The Copyright Tribunal settles commercial licensing disputes between copyright owners or their agents and businesses that use copyrighted material GOV.UK.

The headline change is the price per ticket. The approved royalty is 7.9p per admission, up from 7.33p. The higher rate will apply to music use dating back to 1 July 2024.

The tribunal also backed PRS’s plan to charge on admissions alone. That ends a dual system under which cinemas could choose instead to pay as a share of ticket takings. Under the old terms from 2005, operators could pay either 1% of net box office receipts or a per-admission fee, which stood at 7.10p in 2023.

Smaller fixed payments rise too. The annual minimum fee per cinema screen increases from £75 to £131.50. For concert screenings shown in cinemas, the royalty rises from 3% to 4% of ticket and booking-fee revenue. Rates will then be adjusted for inflation at the start of each year.

UK cinemas are required to pay PRS for music heard in their buildings, from film soundtracks and trailers to music played in foyers. The sums are collected by PRS and passed on to writers and publishers.

The case turns on a tariff that had not been renegotiated for more than 20 years. The existing deal was agreed in 2005 with the UK Cinema Association, then called the Cinema Exhibitors’ Association. PRS first set out plans for a revised Tariff C in a 2023 consultation paper.

The paperwork is not quite finished. PRS said it will finalise the updated wording of Tariff C in consultation with the UK Cinema Association. The final version must then return to the tribunal for approval at a further hearing.

For audiences, the change will be invisible. The royalty is paid by the cinema, not added as a line on a ticket. What makes it matter is scale. A fraction of a penny per seat, multiplied across millions of admissions each year, becomes the money distributed to the people who wrote the music.