Unpaid royalties get personal for PPL boss: Fran Nevrkla underlines promise to recoup lost assets.(Retail)

PPL chairman and chief executive Fran Nevrkla says he will take it as a personal failure if his organisation cannot fully tap into the mountain of unpaid UK royalties from overseas it is chasing.

Nevrkla, who has made the issue one of his key priorities, promised at PPL's AGM last Wednesday that his organisation will "pursue relentlessly" its target of retrieving the enormous sums of income" owed to the UK by virtually every overseas collecting society.

"I shall consider it my personal failure if in the coming years we do not unblock these enormous streams of income for both the performer community and the members," said Nevrkla, who pledged PPL would not "go away" or "shut up" in its pursuit of outstanding overseas income.

The day after his speech, Nevrkla inked a deal with PPL's Italian equivalent SCF, the organisation's 13th such reciprocal arrangement since it started collecting overseas royalties in 2002. Negotiations are ongoing with nine other overseas societies, while strategy and business development director Dominic McGonigal told the AGM at London's British Library that PPL is in discussions with Japan's RIAJ about a deal to retrieve UK royalties.

Another growing revenue stream is likely to be internet radio, with director of licensing Tony Clark revealing that PPL is just day's away from signing its first such licence agreement in a deal with AOL, ...