Radio News You Can't Use

Webcasting Royalty Battle Continues
Fierce opposition to the Copyright Royalty Board's controversial new rates for webcasting royalties has prompted the board to push their due date for payments forward from May 15 to July 15. Additional time for negotiations is a fantastic plan, provided that negotiating actually happens between the CRB, Sound Exchange, and webcasters. After attending the Future of Music Coalition's Technology and IP Policy Day yesterday and witnessing a board member of Sound Exchange claim that webcasting has no promotional value for artists, it is clear to me that fundamental differences in opinion (some may say reality) might derail any hope for progress. The CEO of Live 365 pleaded with Sound Exchange to return his phone calls, if that gives you any idea of how the discourse has derailed. Let's hope that everyone's lawyers play nice, otherwise companies like Pandora will disappear and non-commercial webcasters will be forced to remain tiny, lest they wish to be charged the same rates as commercial webcasters.

FCC Update
This month, the FCC finally released its highly anticipated report on TV violence (click here for the full report, PDF), which concludes that the commission should regulate violence on TV and provides evidence that violent programming is harmful to children. They use this as a justification to call for a-la-carte cable TV packages, something that the cable lobby is not happy about. Others are concerned that the FCC can't possibly come up with a good definition of what is "too violent" and what isn't, provided their notoriously unclear policies concerning indecency. The commission didn't even bother to come up with a definition of violence in their report, but asserted that they could definitely regulate it, whatever it is.

The FCC also headed to Tampa, FL, this month for another public hearing regarding media ownership. This meeting and similar hearings in other cities have demonstrated that the public is concerned about a lack of diversity, localism, and quality of their news and entertainment sources. The feds are reexamining the ownership rules that prevent one company from owning too many stations and/or newspapers in a given market, but with so many voices against consolidation on the record, Chairman Kevin Martin may find it difficult to justify any further loosening of the law.