Financial services company Freeway Entertainment Group and German-based distribution auditor RevCheck have announced a new and unique joint venture at this year’s Cannes Marché, offering worldwide revenue reconciliation services to the international film industry.
Producers, sales companies, funding entities, rights owners and talent will all benefit from Freeway’s and RevCheck’s combination of expertise and experience as well as from their networks of external advisers. The venture is further advantaged by collaboration with TMF Group, a global management and accounting outsourcing company with over 3,000 professionals working out of 86 offices in 65 countries around the world (Western and Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa, Latin America, Asia, Oceania).
RevCheck is a German-based network of media professionals (media lawyers, media advisers, marketing and distribution executives, controllers, accountants) with years of experience in their respective fields. RevCheck offers auditing and consulting services to producers, sales companies, funding entities, rights owners and talent with respect to participation deals. The company’s services range from revenue reconciliation to conducting complete audits and handling claims.
With most of the fieldwork managed by TMF’s accounting professionals offering local business backgrounds and language skills, the new service will help producers working with international distributors to balance the cost of audiences against prospective revenue.
RevCheck's Managing Director Jochen Hesse said: “If producers have issues with distributors at the other side of the world, they often have to balance the costs of sending auditors to visit these companies against the expected revenues they might recoup. Our collaboration with TMF Group enables us to send local accounting professionals in and report back to the RevCheck team to analyse the findings, saving the producers substantial costs.”
Martijn Meerstadt, Freeway’s Director, Collection Account Management, said: “The complexity of co-producing, distributing and financing films is becoming increasingly global owing to new business models and the availability of different financial resources and mechanisms worldwide. Revenue collection is becoming more crucial for investors and producers alike. We are one of a small group of companies with the expertise and resource able to offer this specialist service.”
Gadi Wildstrom, Freeway Managing Director, said: “Over the past couple of years we‘ve been approached by a significant number of clients asking for our help in securing their fair share of revenues. Joining forces with RevCheck enables us to satisfy our clients’ needs in this respect, which is becoming more and more important given the growing diversification of revenue streams. Our shareholder TMF Group will play a vital role in this new set-up.”
The deal was negotiated for Freeway Entertainment Group by Director, Collection Account Management Martijn Meerstadt and Managing Director Gadi Wildstrom. Media lawyers Matthias Braun (Berlin) and Jobst Upmeier (Munich) brokered the deal for RevCheck.
TMF Group is the majority shareholder in Freeway Entertainment Group, ensuring further growth and stability of the financial services Freeway provides to the film industry.
Freeway is operating in the international entertainment industry with offices in the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Hungary and a representative office in the United States. Freeway’s core service, collection account management, provides tailor-made royalty collection and administration solutions. As a trusted third party, Freeway collects, administers and disburses revenues derived from the exploitation of films, television programmes and video games, providing clients fully transparent and impartial overviews of the financial status of the exploitation of their projects.
With over 3,000 professionals working out of 86 offices in 65 countries, TMF Group provides independent accounting and corporate secretarial services to companies worldwide. All TMF offices are company-owned to ensure that TMF can provide a broad platform rather than a network of associated members, as well as the highest quality worldwide.