Canada Raises Radio Music Royalty Fees 30%

CANADA's private commercial radio stations have been hit with a 30% royalty fee increase for music by the COPYRIGHT BOARD. The ruling last FRIDAY (10/14) approved the hefty rate hike, which will apply through 2007. 

A statement by the CANADIAN ASSOCIATION OF BROADCASTERS calls the ruling "aberrant and unreasonable" and complains that "(r)ather than just approving rates based on the value of music, this panel's decision seeks to appropriate a cultural policy making role, and establish its own economic order for the distribution of cultural subsidies.... It is astonishing that this Board would explicitly attack its own enabling legislation, blatantly dismiss cultural subsidies required by the CRTC, and then confer onto itself the legitimacy to reengineer the relationship between the radio and music industries." 

CAB Pres./CEO GLENN O'FARRELL added that the rate hikes "are entirely unjustified, and are nothing more than a tax on efficiency, innovation and good programming. We are at a loss to understand how this panel – which did not include the newly-appointed Chairman of the COPYRIGHT BOARD – could be so certain that all previous Boards got it wrong for the past 50 years.”

« see more Net News