tv music license committee

SESAC was, until recently, the only one of the three major performing rights organizations (PROs) that was not subject to an antitrust consent decree – meaning that it could set the rates that it wanted without any oversight by any court or other judicial body. For practical purposes, that ended when the radio and television industries separately sued SESAC claiming antitrust violations. Both the radio and TV industries felt that the SESAC royalties were too high in relation to those charged by ASCAP and BMI given the far greater amount of music controlled by these two larger PROs. As we wrote here (television) and here (radio), both antitrust cases ended with settlements where SESAC agreed that its rates would be subject to review by an arbitration panel to assure their reasonableness, if voluntary negotiations between the groups representing the industries and SESAC were not successful in arriving at mutually agreeable rates. So far, it appears that the rate-setting process for radio and TV are going in different directions.

The TV Music License Committee and SESAC have announced that they have reached an agreement in principle as to rates for the TV industry. See the press release here. While the agreement has not been finalized or made public, if negotiations of the final documents are successful, the TV industry and SESAC appear to avoid having their rates set by the arbitration process. So far, that does not seem to be the case for the radio industry.
Continue Reading Update on the SESAC Royalty Arbitration Proceedings with the Radio and TV Industries