September 21, 2003

BMI, Radio Industry Agreement Approved by Federal District Court

The Radio Music License Committee (RMLC) and BMI announced today that Judge Louis J. Stanton in the Federal District Court of New York has approved the agreement the parties had reached on new commercial radio station blanket and per program licenses for the musical works in BMI's repertoire for their over-the-air broadcasting. The agreement also includes a separate fee for the right for RMLC radio stations to simultaneously stream their over-the-air signals on their Internet websites.

As previously announced, the agreement covers the 10-year period from 1997 through 2006, and has an estimated total value of $1.6 billion. BMI will mail contracts to radio stations throughout the industry within the next two weeks.

The RMLC represents, directly or indirectly, nearly all commercial U.S. radio stations.

BMI represents more than 500,000 songwriters, composers, and publishers with more than 7.5 million works.