OTTAWA – With a tariff decision it finds “egregious and flawed” facing Canadian radio broadcasters, the Canadian Association of Broadcasters filed a motion with the Federal Court of Canada on Tuesday asking for a judicial review of the Copyright Board’s October 14 decision.
In its decision on the tariffs radio stations pay to the Society of Composers, Authors, and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN) and the Neighbouring Rights Collective of Canada (NRCC) for the rights to play music, the Copyright Board of Canada raised the rates on these tariffs, which will result in an overall increase in fees paid by Canadian radio stations of 30%.
The new tariffs will cost millions and, according to at least one broadcaster, it will cost radio jobs, too.
The CAB is appealing the decision “on the grounds that the (Copyright) Board has based its arguments on immeasurable conjecture, such as its finding that past Boards have undervalued music,” says the CAB release.
“The CAB notes that the Board had never stated its intent to review the findings of previous Boards with regard to the value of music, and as such, deprived the CAB from providing appropriate evidence to counter this claim. It is the CAB’s position that the levels of increase in this decision are in no way tied to or supported by any empirical evidence of the increased value of music to broadcasters. The CAB believes that the Copyright Board, in claiming efficiencies achieved by radio stations and increased advertising revenues as the reasons for the increased rates, made errors in law and acted without jurisdiction when increasing these rates without proper justification.”
SOCAN, of course, feels differently, as it said on cartt.ca last week.
“(T)he Board’s statement that increased advertising revenues by certain radio broadcasters support its claim is disingenuous, given that these tariffs have always been set as a percentage of these same advertising revenues, and rise proportionately with any increase in revenue achieved by broadcasters,” added the CAB.
“Canada’s radio broadcasters cannot accept such an egregious and flawed decision, which makes monumental increases to the tariffs they pay without any rational or acceptable justification,” said CAB president and CEO Glenn O’Farrell.
The CAB’s radio members met at the organization’s annual convention in Winnipeg on Sunday, November 6 and backed the CAB’s aggressive challenge to this ruling, “as the significant rate increases for their individual stations will have far-reaching affects on their ability to remain competitive, and their ability to maintain the current required levels of cultural contributions,” says the release.
In addition to its legal challenge, the CAB is also raising questions in the political arena with regard to the mandate of the Copyright Board, noting that it is attempting to create cultural policy rather than serving as a rate-setting agency.
“With this decision, the Copyright Board has attempted to create a regime of cultural subsidies for the music industry, while vehemently ignoring the substantial existing contributions to Canadian musical talent development made by private broadcasters and overseen by the CRTC – an agency with legitimate regulatory oversight of the broadcast industry,” added O’Farrell.
