COSBOTS revenue and royalties increase
Nnasaretha Kgamanyane | Sunday August 18, 2024 06:00
Sekani also said the Companies and Intellectual Property Authority (CIPA) approved the reprographic reproduction rights tariffs on March 18, 2022. She added that the fiscal year-end marked their first full year of revenue collections from the tariff. She also explained that in its introductory year, the reprography rights revenue amounted to P5, 288, 757 while music rights totalled P13, 247, 981. Furthermore, she stated that the total declaration of royalties for Distribution 16 was P11, 270, 071, representing a 36% increase from the previous fiscal year. She explained that in the fiscal year ended 2022, the declared Distribution 15 royalties was P8, 300, 000.
She said the Distribution 16 royalties were segmented as follows; P9, 558, 290 for music rights and P2, 027, 577 for reprographic rights. “COSBOTS is committed to ensuring that copyright owners are the primary beneficiaries of the strides made in royalties collections. The fiscal year-end distribution revenue ration stands at 61%, indicating that 61% of our revenue collections have been allocated as royalties to copyright owners. The Distribution 16 declaration is detailed as follows; music rights P9, 558, 290 and reprographic rights P2, 027, 577 all totalling P11, 270, 071,” she said. Speaking of their operating expenses for the year, she said they totalled P11, 643, 447.00 representing a 12% reduction from the previous year’s expenses of P13, 263, 521.00. She explained that the reduction highlighted COSBOTS’ commitment to a stringent budgeting process, which enabled them to manage their resources more effectively and reduce overall expenditure.
On the overall performance, she said the company recorded a net of P4, 628, 631 for the fiscal year, compared to a net loss of P2, 003, 309 in the previous year. As a company limited by guarantee, she said COSBOTS exists primarily to collect royalties for the use of copyright works and distributes the royalties to copyright owners. She said while achieving profitability was important for sustaining reserves, as it remained secondary to their primary mandate. Despite the net loss, she said the company declared a 36% increase in royalty compared to the previous year. “Our financial position has remained strong during the year, and we have continued to maintain a healthy balance sheet and liquidity. The company has acquired its building and motor vehicles under a finance lease arrangement. The carrying amount for the building at year-end is P3, 219, 754, while the total carrying value of motor vehicles is P106, 337.
The total outstanding lease liability on these lease assets is P1, 765,370,” she stated. Meanwhile, COSBOTS chairperson, Bakalanga Malikongwa, said even in the face of extraordinary adversity, their leadership continued to shine as an example of creativity, resilience and dedication to the greater good of the creative community. Malikongwa added that three years ago she committed to maximise the value of their members’ rights by aiming to distribute 70% if income as royalties by 2025. Additionally, she said she pledged to maintain strict control over costs, with the goal of reducing cost-to-income ratio. Malikongwa said the board has successfully achieved the objectives within three years, with distribution 16 reaching a 77% distribution-to-income ration.
“Some of our major accomplishments include a new direction we established as an industry front runner in rights management where our organisation’s goal from the start of our strategic journey to re-imagine and improve COSBOTS was to establish ourselves as a worldwide leader in rights management, international standard music work Code (IPIs) where in early 2023 COSBOTS achieved a significant milestone by successfully submitting its members’ information to SUISA for the registration of Interested Party Information Numbers (IPINs), Creative Hub: A creative-friendly approach that is a pipeline business development and incubation entity that will be working in the creative SMME environment with a particular focus on the creative industries to name but just a few,” she stated.