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Appeal judge overturns tribunal ruling on video TV rates

By | Published on Wednesday 11 August 2010

The video-focused sister company of recording rights collecting society PPL – so, that’ll be VPL then – have scored a court win in their long running dispute with a company that operates various music video-based TV channels, including Chart Show TV, The Vault, Flava and NME TV.

CSC Media took VPL to the Copyright Tribunal back in 2009 over the royalty rate charged to music TV channels, arguing the collecting society’s royalty system was outdated and that rates ignored the promotional value to content owners of having their music on a CSC channel (yes, it’s that old argument).

The Tribunal agreed and ruled that CSC Media should pay 12.5% of its gross revenue to the collecting society rather than the 20% VPL requested. But the society appealed, and that appeal hearing was held last month with a ruling being issued this week.

And the good news, for VPL members that is, is that the appeal judge ruled that the Tribunal had made analytical errors when originally considering the case. That doesn’t mean CSC Media will now have to pay 20%, but that the Tribunal will have to consider the case anew.

VPL/PPL top man Fran Nevrkla told reporters: “We are determined to stand up for the rights of our members and for the value of the repertoire we represent. Our successful High Court Appeal was an essential part of that process”.



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