ATVOD cuts fees 5%
June 29, 2011
Following a consultation, ATVOD, the much criticised self-regulation body for UK VoD providers, has cut its annual fees by 5.5 per cent. Commercial VoD publishers will no longer pay a flat fee of £2,900 but will have a a sliding rate based on revenue, thought this will be on the parent company not the website business.
As a result most commercial operators – major publishers, broadcasters and sports organisations will all have to pay the maximum £10,030 annual fee.
“[Holding company Revenue] is the only metric on which there’s any certainty,” ATVOD CEO Peter Johnson said. He said that as VoD is oftena value add to anexisting service it is impossible to verify a discrete revenue stream, and sometimes the services are loss leaders for other parts of the package.
Non-commercial publishers including charities have won a £50 discount, but are still compelled to pay £100 per year to cover ATVOD’s costs.
ATVOD says it is lowering fees because it has found an unexpected £10,219 surplus following its first year, rather than the £52,757 deficit it had projected. As well, Ofcom and the DCMS are, respectively, both lowering and deferring repayments due to them by ATVOD.