What does BECS do?

The British Equity Collecting Society (BECS) was established in 1998 as a not-for-profit organisation run by performers for performers.  It is the only collective management organisation (CMO) in the UK to enforce Performers’ Audio-Visual rights in the UK and to collect revenue from the compulsory collective administration of statutory rights in other countries.

Performers in many countries are compensated for the use of their audiovisual work via a system of legal rights.  These rights entitle them to remuneration when their work is copied for private use, retransmitted on cable channels or publicly broadcast.   BECS negotiates agreements with the CMOs in the respective countries for a share of the revenue generated in this way for our members. 

BECS has a network of international agreements in place with CMOs in Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland; and more recently in Chile, Colombia and Peru. 

We aim to continually increase our affiliated societies and bilateral agreements wherever possible to collect more for our members throughout the globe. 

We carry out our major distribution of revenue towards the middle of the year with a smaller one taking place towards the end of the year.