A group of US TV companies have filed a class-action lawsuit against SESAC, the third publishing collecting society that operates in America, alongside its bigger rivals BMI and ASCAP.
The litigation has been confirmed by the Television Music Licence Committee, which usually negotiates with collecting societies on behalf of some 1200 local TV companies, though it seems SESAC has been doing deals directly with the broadcasters since last year.
I think it's SESAC's refusal to enter into collectively bargained deals that is at the heart of the suit, because the TMLC's members feel that the company-by-company deals result in the collecting society getting more money, which is possibly why they have opted to start negotiating licences on that basis.
BMI and ASCAP wouldn't be able to insist on such price boosting tactics because of voluntary decrees that govern some of their operations which they signed in the 1940s (to avoid US government-led anti-trust action). SESAC, though, never signed any such decree.
The collecting society is yet to respond to the lawsuit, the legal papers for which have been shown to Billboard by the TMLC.