New Fees Proposed for ALL Licensed Broadcasters

Both the House and the Senate have seen the introduction of new legislation that would impose a new fee on all broadcasters that play copyrighted sound recordings.  The new fees are in addition to the fees already paid to ASCAP, SESAC and BMI for the musical works (for the underlying compositions). It appears that the house version of the bill would require FCC licensed non-commercial broadcasters, such as educational stations at high schools, colleges and universities to pay $1,000 per year for the right to broadcast music. In addition, CPB funded stations, such as the local NPR affiliates, would also be covered under the $1,000 “exclusion” for SMALL, NONCOMMERCIAL, EDUCATIONAL, AND RELIGIOUS STATIONS AND CERTAIN USES”.

Commercially licensed stations with a gross revenue of under $1,250,000 per year could opt to pay $5,000 per year.  All others would be pay based upon a rate to be determined by a rate setting proceeding before the Copyright Royalty Board.

A nearly identical bill was introduced last year, but it failed to pass, most likely do to the timing and partisan politics.  With more democrats on the hill, this bill will likely gain more support than its predecessor.

Perhaps unknowingly, the bill would also require broadcast stations to submits reports of use, similar to those required of webcasting stations.  As noted on this page, the CRB has proposed to significantly increase the recordkeeping burden.

This post will be updated as we continue to evaluate the proposed legislation and obtain a copy of the Senate version.