Stations, BMI Resolve Rate Differences

TV stations have struck a deal with Broadcast Music Inc. on
a new blanket license agreement covering 7.5 million works in BMI's music
library.

The agreement, which is retroactive to Jan. 1, 2005, and
extends through Dec. 31, 2017, resolves rate court litigation.

The agreement covers music on a station's primary channel,
multicast channels and websites. The deal was struck with the Television Music
License Committee, which represents TV stations in music-licensing
negotiations with BMI, The American Society of Composers, Authors and
Publishers and SESAC.

"With this settlement and the recent ASCAP settlement, we
are pleased that stations will have predictable, reduced fees for music with
ASCAP through 2016 and BMI through 2017," said Charles Sennet, chairman of the
TMLC, in a statement. "The new licenses cover all the ways we distribute our
content, and move us toward the goal of paying competitive rates for music in
our programming."

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.