You need to register your entire work repertoire with us within the period prescribed (Art. 5.2 distribution regulations/DR). In our regular distribution, we only incorporate works which have been filed on time (Art. 5.4 and 6.7 DR) and are thus registered in our database.
You must register your works by the end of March of the year following the broadcast at the latest (Art. 13.8 DR; we do not require the broadcast dates at this stage).
You can either register your works together with the broadcast dates of the previous year (Art. 13.8 DR), or, if this is not possible – as you may not know the broadcast dates – any late work registrations that have been filed without broadcast dates shall be included in the regular distribution in the following year for the first time (Art. 13.8 para. 3 DR).
No. There is a reserve fund for late notifications of claims (Art. 7.2 DR). Further details can be found in Art. I of the Annex to the DR. If the work and its broadcasts on TV are, however, registered within the five-year limitation period, two supplementary distributions cater for such cases:
- A first supplementary distribution for claims that reach us in the first, one-year supplementary distribution period (i.e. from 1st July of the year during which the regular distribution takes place until the 30th June of the following year), and
- a final distribution for claims that subsequently reach us during the second supplementary distribution period of 4.5 years. Please note that this second distribution pool is only paid out once 5 years have lapsed after the date of the regular distribution.
There is mandatory data that we require to identify works correctly (Art. 5.5 DR). These are at any rate:
- Original title, original language and language versions,
- production year and production country,
- work type and genre,
- work duration as well as
- the work identification number if possible (own, ISAN or IDA).
Societies which also represent producers and other owners of derivative copyrights must also provide the following information for each work:
- Director,
- producer,
- whether rights are claimed for the entire series or just individual episodes.
Should such data be partially or altogether missing, we are not able to process your registration resp. individual works in it.
Mandatory information on rights (Art. 5.5 DR) are, at any rate:
- For authors’ societies for each work:
- First name and name of the represented author,
- their function in relation to the work,
- their share, if there are several rights holders per function, as well as
- their IPI number, if possible.
- Societies which also represent producers and other owners of derivative copyrights must provide the following information for each work:
- Which rights are claimed for Switzerland,
- for whom such rights are claimed (name of the rights holder),
- function of the rights holder,
- rights from/until as well as
- their IPI number, if possible.
Should such data be partially or altogether missing, we are not able to process your registration resp. individual works in it.
The work registration should generally be made electronically, in one of the following formats:
- WRI (XML exchange format at AGICOA): www.agicoa.org/english/rightsholder/wri.html
- Suissimage Excel import format (only for small amounts of data)
No, in such cases it suffices if you send us a confirmation that you authorise us to transfer your work repertoire from IDA in future and import it at our end.
Each year, 30 domestic and foreign TV stations which are retransmitted in Switzerland and have the biggest reach are included in the distribution; SRG SSR programmes are “must carry” stations and are included at any rate (Art. 13.2 DR). We will inform you of the stations that are relevant for each respective usage year.
Generally, no. Your work registration is sufficient and you do not need to notify us of the broadcast. We carry out monitoring ourselves and match all broadcasts with our works database; that is in such cases where works of your repertoire have been broadcast.
The only broadcasts you must register are those of works or work fragments of less than 5 minutes as well as so-called “inserts” (i.e. works or work fragments within a broadcast with another title), as they are usually not recognisable based on the documentation at our disposition.
The check list serves the purpose to inform you 2 months prior to the distribution whether, based on our documentation, works from your repertoire have been broadcast via one of the TV stations relevant for the distribution or not, and if yes, which ones (Art. 8.1. DR). Should you be aware of additional broadcasts which are missing from the CL, you can register them within 30 days so that they will also be included in the distribution. If we do not hear from you, the check list is deemed to have been approved by you (Art. 8.1 para. 2 DR) and the distribution based on the CL shall be definitive and incontestable (Art. 8.1 para. 3 DR).
With the check list, you receive a declaration of indemnity which you are required to sign and return to us before payment of the regular distribution. Without the declaration of indemnity, no royalties will be paid out at the time of regular distribution.
In the retransmission category, the weighting criteria are the following (Art. 13.3 DR):
- Duration of the broadcast,
- work category (type and genre),
- extent of the work usage (broadcasting station and its daily reach),
- time of the broadcast and
- the programme coefficient (i.e. station language, not broadcast language).
For private copying, the time of the broadcast shall not be taken into consideration.
For the utilisation for educational purposes, the extent of the work usage is determined by whether and to what extend the work has actually been recorded by school media libraries.
Further details can be found in Art. II, III and V of the Annex to the DR.
There are several possibilities for this scenario:
- If claims are made by different societies for the same rights holder, the payment is – in cases of doubt – made based on the IPI, or via the society of their residence/headquarters and if neither of these pieces of information are known, via the society which registered the rights holder first (Art. 12.1 DR).
- If different societies claim the share that is due to the rights holders; it is generally paid out to the producer (Art. 6.5 DR) and therefore – in cases of doubt – to the society in the country of production.
- Works or work fragments of less than 5 minutes as well as so-called “inserts” (i.e. works or work fragments within a broadcast with another title) shall only be taken into consideration, if their broadcast had been notified (Art. 6.8 DR), as they are usually not recognisable based on the documentation at our disposition.
- It is possible that the transmission took place via a foreign private broadcaster which disseminates a country-specific version of its programme – due to advertising reasons – (e.g. Sat1 and Sat1 CH etc.).
In the case of a conflicting multiple registration (CMR), the money is withheld from the distribution and the involved parties are contacted and asked to resolve the conflict within the 5-year statutory limitation period.
We strictly adhere to our distribution regulations:
- If there is a dispute whether someone has contributed as an author or co-producer, we base our distribution on what is mentioned in the respective publications (Art. 9 DR).
- If shares within a specific function are in dispute, we distribute based on the number of parties involved (Art. 6.4.4 DR).
- If the allegedly false information has been imported from IDA, the correction has to be made in IDA.
In other respects, our sister societies are explicitly liable for the correctness and completeness of the details they provided (Art. 5.2 para 2 DR).
Generally, no, unless a lawsuit is pending in relation to the claims for a specific work. If evidence for such a case is sent to Suissimage, the pay-out shall be postponed until the lawsuit has ended (Art. 10.4 DR).