NAB and other industry groups appealed a decision of the Copyright Board regarding the rates to be paid for non-interactive streaming of broadcast stations. Thus, the rates, which have already been set for a while, will remain in place.
Noted Communications attorney David Oxenford explained the obligations of stations to pay for non-interactive streaming:
“As a reminder, the CRB rates apply to all companies who provide a non-interactive, internet-delivered steam of programming which includes recorded music or other audio content, including broadcasters who simulcast their over-the-air programming on the internet. Congress established the process of setting rates through hearings by the CRB so that noninteractive webcasters would have access to all recorded and publicly released audio recordings without having to individually negotiate with each copyright holder. Services pay these “statutory royalties” to SoundExchange, observe certain requirements that limit how often particular recordings are played so as to not make the services a substitute for buying recordings or listening to them through on-demand services (which pay higher royalties negotiated directly with the copyright holder), and report to SoundExchange what they play. SoundExchange collects the royalties and uses the reports of what the services played to distribute the royalties they collect. One-half of the royalties collected go to the performers on the sound recording, and one-half to the copyright holders of the recording, usually the record labels that own the copyrights for sound recordings.”
You can find more information on David’s communications law blog here.
You can see the Court's decision here.