The pace of change in broadcasting has been tremendous and the opportunities for those working in the creative industries are immense. There are exciting times ahead for Equity members but the rapid changes to the industry also bring increasing risks.
In this rapidly changing and often unpredictable environment, Equity sees its role as being to provide safety nets. We will work to put in place secure mechanisms of payment, enshrining the basic principles of fair reward for the exploitation of our members' work and construct agreements that are robust enough to cope with this new era whilst allowing our members to take advantage of all the new opportunities open to them.
The future will be different. Existing repeat fees - which often paid almost as much as the original fee - were only sustainable when programmes were broadcast on a handful of channels that monopolised viewers.
In this multi-channel, multi-platform era there are hundreds of channels fighting for a share of a shrinking audience and it is unlikely that the repeat fee can survive at its historic levels.
New technology adds further complications, making it more difficult to judge exactly what constitutes a repeat. When one person downloads a programme from a video on demand system it would be unreasonable to expect the level of repeat fee paid for a broadcast on a major terresterial. But what if the programme is part of a "stacked" series and thousands of people download it, is that a repeat?
These changes mean that Equity, the producers and broadcasters are going to have to think carefully about how members are being paid. Equity has set itself the task of ensuring that, at the very least, our members are no worse off in this new media environment than they were in the past.
Your union is negotiating for your rights, but to succeed we need your support.