Leading the increase was public performance where, against a backdrop of a struggling economy, the money brought in increased by 9.8% to £55.0m, while broadcasting and online revenues were up 6.8% to £66.2m.

Income PPL collected from overseas was also up again, although rising by a much slower rate than in recent years, up 2.2% to a new annual high of £32.4m.

All this left the amount of money distributed to members rising by 5.4% year-on-year to £130.8m. At the ...