Television Licensing FAQs

• Access to every variety of music you need to attract and entertain your viewers.
  
• The immediate right to perform great new music written or published by our members.
  
• Access to perform music in the repertories of nearly 60 affiliated foreign societies.
  
• The right to perform music in commercials and jingles.
  
  
• An indemnity if a claim for infringement is made against you, your staff or your advertisers based on the performance of our member's works.
  
• A fee that has not increased in 11 years, even though the ASCAP repertory has grown.

• The ASCAP television license does not provide the right to authorize retransmissions of broadcasts of ASCAP music over loudspeakers in stores, restaurants or other locations open to the public, or by means of music-on-hold systems.
  
• The ASCAP license does not provide the right to record copyrighted music, or change the lyric of a copyrighted work and use it in a commercial jingle or station promotion. These are known as "mechanical" and "synchronization" rights and you should deal directly with the copyright owners for permission to record music or change a song. You may also want to contact the Harry Fox Agency at (212) 370-5330.

ASCAP licenses several elements of the broadcast TV industry including the major networks, approximately 1,300 local commercial television stations, LPTV and the Public Broadcasting System (PBS).

Each of the networks have negotiated blanket license agreements with ASCAP.

The local stations may choose between two license types — Blanket or Per Program. Both licenses give the user full access to the ASCAP repertory. However, the Per Program License requires the licensee to report to us the music content of all of its local and syndicated programs (non-network) on a monthly basis, and the fee is based in part on that report.

The last blanket and per program license agreements for commercial television stations negotiated between ASCAP and the TMLC were for the license term April 1, 1998 through December 31, 2009. ASCAP and the TMLC are currently engaged in discussions to determine new license fees and terms for the period beginning January 1, 2010. In connection with those discussions, ASCAP and the TMLC have agreed to extend the terms of the prior agreements for the interim license period beginning January 1, 2010 and continuing at least through December 31, 2011.

If your station was licensed prior to December 31, 2009, in order to remain licensed for the interim license period beginning after that date, you should now either join the other stations represented by the TMLC; sign the 2010 ASCAP Television Station License Extension Agreement; or make your own application for a license alone or with others. Operators of new stations, or stations sold on or after January 1, 2010, may also be represented by the TMLC in the pending negotiations (or court proceeding if the negotiations fail to produce new agreements); or may execute interim license extension agreements that contain the same terms as the expired license agreement, and provide for payment of interim license fees, subject to retroactive adjustment, on the same basis as will be applicable for TMLC stations. For additional information or forms please call us at (800) 99-ASCAP.

An industry-wide flat dollar annual fee has been negotiated between ASCAP and the Television Music License Committee, which is made up of representatives from local television stations. The industry wide fee is adjusted annually based upon the number of licensed stations in the country and changes in the Consumer Price Index. The industry wide fee is then allocated among individual stations, in accordance with a methodology devised by the Committee (and approved by a federal court) to produce each station's annual blanket license fee.

There are two steps to the Committee's allocation formula. First, the industry wide fee is divided among all the television or "ADI " (Areas of Dominant Influence) markets across the country. For example, Omaha is a market; Dallas-Fort Worth is a market. The share of the total for each market is weighted according to size. The Dallas-Fort Worth market is weighted higher than Omaha, for instance, because Dallas-Fort Worth has more stations and more viewers. The result is that total fees paid by all of the stations in the Dallas market are greater than total fees paid by all of the stations in the Omaha market.

Once the total fee for a market has been calculated, it is allocated to the individual stations in that market. This allocation is based on verified household ratings: that is, how many people watch each station. A highly rated station in a market will therefore pay a greater fee than a station with a low rating. And, overall, a highly rated station in a large market will have a higher blanket fee than a highly rated station in a small market.

All stations electing the Per Program license use their allocated blanket fee as a part of the calculation of their monthly Per Program fee. Each per program licensee reports the music content and the advertising revenue associated with each of its local and syndicated programs on a monthly basis. The station's monthly per program fee is determined in part by the amount of ASCAP music in those programs and the amount of revenue generated by those programs for the station. The per program fee also includes an "incidental use" component which is 15% of the station's allocated blanket fee. Monthly per program reports must be submitted electronically. No paper reports are accepted.

Stations can switch license types twice in a calendar year, so the numbers vary from month to month. Generally, about 25 % of the local television industry has chosen the per program option.

None. Stations operating under the blanket license do not have to submit reports to ASCAP in order to determine their fee because the fee is not based upon actual usage.

Call an ASCAP broadcast licensing representative toll free at 1-800-99-ASCAP. We will be happy to explain in greater detail the options available to you. Each station should choose the license most advantageous for its needs.