Photoclubalpha

Last year I was contacted by the BBC in Wales asking permission to use my photo of Pembroke Castle in a documentary they were producing.
I agreed on condition that an appropriate fee was paid for the use of the image. This was agreed to, and a basic contract was made and signed allowing use of the image and payment. I transmitted the image via email after I had signed and returned the agreement.

That was in August of last year.
I have still not been paid for the image! I could not get the purchase order numbers to complete payment (required now evidently for the BBC and contributors)
I spent some time making phone calls trying emails etc to get this sorted out. To no avail it would seem.
Last week I sent a letter to the BBC stating that I had not been paid and required payment for the image.

Today I get an email saying the person who had initiated the contact in the first place, was no longer working for the BBC.
10 minutes ago I get an email saying that they didn't use the image anyway and they hope things work out better if I have any more dealings with them in future!

I've replied saying that as an agreement has been completed, and the image has been transmitted, they still owe me the money. It will be interesting to see how they deal with this. I also pointed out I'm not responsible for editorial decisions in the BBC, and I've incurred costs as well trying to chase up a payment. Shame to see such a shambles with a respected broadcaster, but I'll turn on the thumbscrews if needed.

When was the image broadcast - date, time, programme?

Rather than deal via email, if it were me, I would send a registered letter to the BBC's legal department, stating the above with a copy of the contract, and give them 14 days to pay the agreed fee plus an amount to cover the cost of your time in chasing the matter. If they don't pay within the time limit, I would take them to the small claims court.

BBC may be a respected broadcaster, but I know from personal experience what a bunch of money/time wasting, hope-dashing, twits they are.

Well I turned up the heat and said not only had they wasted my time..but I incurred costs trying to get the payment sorted out. It was quite unexpected for the BBC to throw out the "we didn't use the image" which is fine..but hey I don't need to lose money either!

I got this today!

Barry,

"I can only re-iterate the fact that I am very am sorry about all of this. But I can confirm that I am willing to authorise an ex-gratia payment of "xxx" in light of all of the trouble this has caused. I will authorise the payment for this due today - and from the moment I received your letter last week, I had asked my contacts in Cardiff 'behind the scenes' to ask them to make this money available to you in good faith.

Generally speaking, the amount of third-party material that we source for a programme like this which relies heavily on archive is significant and we cannot guarantee each and every contribution will be used. Had this been licenced correctly by my area, there would have been a clause stating that payment would usually only be due if the material is used in the final programme. But even then, it is reasonable for rights-holders such as yourself to expect a modest fee to account for particular administrative effort in supplying material to the programme and chasing this up (especially when it drags on for several months like this has).

If you do experience any similar problems with BBC series who use your material, then feel free to fast-track them to me or my department ([email protected]) and we can try and get to the bottom of these as quickly as possible, as I appreciate it can be very frustrating going back and forth to many BBC departments to resolve these sorts of issues"


It's worth chasing this up as I knew they had stuffed themselves up with the lack of any use of the image in broadcast clause. I told them I was going to chase it up and not give up..seems that worked just fine. After my last email I would have got sweet nothing off of them.
Rule no.1 if you're right and know it..complain!

It might be a real oversight on their end and not bad faith. If they want, they sit it out until you dare go to court... Small against big, a real problem these days.

I'll put it down to the person who was dealing with it has left the BBC and didn't appear to follow procedures properly either.
I've since got a payment which covers my costs which is all I was after really. But I'd be a bit cautious about getting involved with them in the future.
At least it's sorted out now

Barry, this is your lucky month! You got two things sorted out. BBC and camera.

3 flash sorted out too!
I guess it was my time to have problems, still I've a decent idea of Nikon and Metz service now which is useful