Eshkolot, the Representive Organization of  Performing Artists in Israel.  Eshkolot represents according to law , all performing artists in Israel, both Audio and Audio Visual, including actors, singers, entertainers and dancers.

Eshkolot’s database at January 2023 listed 47,014 performing artists, who have received and/or are receiving and/or will receive in the future royalties from Eshkolot.

Eshkolot collects royalties from all the broadcasters with whom it has signed agreements: the Israel Broadcasting Authority IBA (radio and television), Channel 12 – Keshet and Cannel 13  Reshet, HOT and YES cable and sattelite providers, Channel 14, local radio stations and IDF Radio GLZ , public places, etc.

Those royalties  are distributed to performing artists, where the main basis for the allocation is the number of minutes each artist was on air.

Background

Eshkolot was founded in 1983 by a group of artists from IUPA – Israel Union of Performing Artists (in Hebrew “EMI”) and the Histadrut’s Artists’ Association, including Yitzchak Bareket Shaike Levi, Sassi Keshet and Ili Gorlizki, chairman of IUPA at that time, and then the chairman of Eshkolot until 2022.

In 1984, the Performers’ Rights Law (1984), initiated by Eshkolot, was passed in the Israeli parliament “The Knesset”. This was the first achievement in Eshkolot’s struggle to protect the rights of Israeli artists performing and broadcast on radio and television.

Eshkolot continued its efforts and, in 1996, recorded a further achievement in realizing the rights of performing artists, when the Knesset approved the 1996 legislative amendments. As a result, the rights of Israeli artists to receive “appropriate royalties,” was guaranteed even when their works were played or performed in public places.

At that same year, the Knesset passed a flawed and missing version of the Private Copying Law (Blank Tapes), which legislated that artists and performers are entitled to royalties on blank tapes (audio and audio-visual) imported to or manufactured in Israel. 

Eshkolot works continuously to solve the complex problems that face most artists’ organizations, such as the internet, VOD, and mobile phones.

Eshkolot wish to develop and promot contacts with other CMO’s in order to share knowledge  and assist performing artists in Israel and in other states.