The UK Copyright Tribunal has sided with PRS for Music in its cinema licensing fight with the UK Cinema Association, approving a royalty of 7.9p per admission, up from 7.33p, payable on every cinema ticket and backdated to music used from July 1, 2024, according to Music Business Worldwide. PRS announced the decision on October 12, 2026, after a dispute that ran two years at the Tribunal and three since PRS first proposed the rise.
Seven pence and change sounds like a rounding error. It is the price of every note heard in a British cinema, from the score to the song over the end credits.
What did the Tribunal actually decide?
The licence in question is PRS's cinema tariff, known as Tariff C. Under the 2024 version, a cinema could pay either 1% of its box office receipts or 7.33 pence per admission, site by site. Music Business Worldwide reports that cinemas tended to pick whichever was cheaper, leaving PRS members with an average of 0.95% of net box office rather than the intended 1%.
The Tribunal approved an admissions-only model, ending the percentage option. According to Music Business Worldwide, citing Music Week, the per-admission rate rises to 7.9p, the annual minimum per screen rises from £75 to £131.50, and royalties on concert screenings rise from 3% to 4% of ticket and booking fee revenue. Rates then rise yearly with inflation. All figures in the table below are as reported by MBW. PRS said the Tribunal accepted that “films, and therefore cinemas, are using more music now than they were in 2005,” the year the old tariff was last negotiated.
| Term | Old Tariff C | Tribunal-backed |
|---|---|---|
| Films | 1% of receipts or 7.33p per admission | 7.9p per admission only |
| Minimum | £75 per screen a year | £131.50 per screen a year |
| Concert screenings | 3% of receipts | 4% of ticket and booking fee revenue |
It is not final yet. The new terms take effect once PRS and the UKCA finish the tariff together and the Tribunal approves it at a further hearing. PRS says it will also adjust the interim royalty payments made while the case ran.
How long did the fight run?
PRS opened a consultation in July 2023 that, as reported by Film Stories, proposed lifting the rate from 7.10p to 8.43p per admission, plus 0.8p where a customer paid a booking fee. MBW reports a revised proposal of 8.33p, or 9.13p with a booking fee. The UKCA took the matter to the Tribunal; its reference, numbered 133/24, was published in the Gazette on August 2, 2024. The case was heard in June 2026, according to CMU. The 7.9p outcome sits below both PRS asks.
The cinemas pushed back hard. UKCA chief executive Phil Clapp called it “a completely unreasonable approach taken by the PRS,” as quoted by MBW from Screen Daily's June coverage, which also reported the UKCA's estimate that the changes would raise members' payments by 42% a year, about £4 million, hitting smaller operators hardest. CMU reports the UKCA's core objection: a flat per-head rate costs more than 1% of revenue at any cinema charging under £7.33 a ticket, often small independents. PRS kept its low-admissions discount, which the tariff sets at up to 25% for sites under 30,000 admissions.
Why does a penny-scale rate matter to composers?
Because cinema is one of the few places where a film composer or a songwriter with a sync gets paid every single time a seat is filled. Public-performance money does not come from the film's budget; it comes from the venue's licence, collected by PRS and paid out to the writers and publishers whose works were used, based on the cue sheets that list what music plays in each film and for how long. A score that runs for most of a film earns accordingly. As streaming growth slows to single digits, steady per-ticket income looks better every year.
PRS is stacking a second change on top. From January 1, 2027, it cuts the administration rate it deducts from cinema royalties from 19% to 16%, part of cuts it says will add £30 million for writers, composers and publishers over three years. PRS chief commercial officer Dan Gopal welcomed “the Tribunal's decision which recognizes the increased value of music in the overall cinema experience.”
A fraction of a penny, times every seat in the country, is how film music gets paid.
For writers whose careers run through screen work, the kind of path traced in our look at Stint's film and TV composing years, the ruling is a reminder that the value of music in a room gets set in hearings like this one. The next date to watch is the Tribunal's final approval hearing, which will fix the tariff's exact wording.