Copyright Royalty Board sets new satellite radio license fees

It's not nearly as hotly-debated as the change to the webcasting rates, but our nation's esteemed Copyright Royalty Board has just issued a new set of license fees for satellite broadcasters -- also known as Sirius and XM. The new rates come after a year of legal wrangling -- the main point of contention was hashing out what revenue to measure to determine the license fees, and it looks like the broadcasters won on this one -- advertising and subscriptions count, but not hardware sales and data services. That said, the rates still look like they're pretty fair, all around: the six-year plan has the companies paying six percent of applicable revenues through 2008, 6.5 percent in 2009, seven percent in 2010, 7.5 percent in 2011, and eight percent in 2012. Of course, hopefully by then that pesky merger will finally be completed, so the rates will have to be adjusted further, but it's nice to know that the tunes are going to keep coming for a while longer.

[Via OrbitCast]

[raerae @ Dec 4th 2007 5:05PM]

Is the dog farting on the XM sign?

[Carbonize @ Dec 4th 2007 5:11PM]

I thought it WAS farting the XM sign.

[Matthew Hilario @ Dec 4th 2007 5:16PM]

pooooot!

[D. B. Dweeb @ Dec 4th 2007 6:03PM]

1) The dog was farting,
2) That constitutes music,
3) You owe me big time.

-- The RIAA

[BigDaddyM @ Dec 4th 2007 5:58PM]

Copyright Royalty Boad?

[BigDaddyM @ Dec 4th 2007 5:58PM]

Copyright Royalty Boad?

[kjb434 @ Dec 4th 2007 6:04PM]

Too bad satellite radio is already a lost cause. This was evident by concept of these to companies to merge. The reality is, that both of these companies are only seeing any growth of their subscribers through new car sales (i.e. people are given the feature that may not have wanted it).

[crow610 @ Dec 4th 2007 8:07PM]

I think we can draw a comparison to the begining of broadband days when satelite seemed the only solution when broadband was not in your area. It was expensive, slow and I also think there was a data cap. Looking at Dish's Satelite service it's obviously adversited for those who can't get DSL or Cable in their area. So while having wireless Internet in a car is both complicated and expensive to the end user (giving us not only Internet Radio but also all sorts of content available on the Internet) Satelite Radio will be merely a solution until CarInternet prices go down and the hardware becomes more readily available (simply a car receiver that supports 3G, EDGE..whatever )

Sure I can listen to the same station even while driving form coast to coast, but unless you are a trucker or in any other profession that requires you to be driving out of your "local" area on a day to day basis, the countless number of Internet radio stations PLUS actually having Internet in my car would outwin Satelite any day.

I have no idea how much it costs for a satelite phone but even though there are many dead spots (my house is one) I'll choose a cell phone over satelite phone mainly because of the cost and the NEED to be always connected isn't that important. (Just looked at one site and they charge $35/week, free incoming, $.75/min). It's a solution for someone that will be in an area that does not have cell coverage but not for someone in a metropolitan area that is mostly covered.

So, we've got satelite Internet and satelite phones that are merely solutions for people that either don't have the coverage or demand 100% coverage but don't mind the costs. Add satelite radio to the picture and you've got something that is limited in content and expensive compared to an Internet solution.

[π @ Dec 4th 2007 7:53PM]

AHHHH! Typo!!! "TOf course..."

[docsharp01 @ Feb 23rd 2008 2:05PM]

Excellent article about satellite radio to inform the public about the new regulations.
http://www.1-satellite-tv-facts.com/Satellite-Radio.html