Grant Broadcasters drops online streaming after fee ruling
Radio station opwner Grant broadcasters has ceased simulcasting its radio broadcasts as an online stream after being asked for a separate licence fee to do so.
The move is a result of the Federal Court ruling in February that internet simulcasts of radio programs fall outside the definition of a “broadcast” under the Copyright Act and are therefore not covered by existing licences to commercial radio networks.
Commercial Radio Australia – the industry body representing radio company owners – appealed the decision but last month its bid was rejected.
PPCA getting bolshie over copyright fees again. When they did this in 1987 with music videos the ABC axed Countdown and Channel Seven axed Sounds. In 1970 British and Australian records were banned from the airwaves for ten months and the final Beatles record – The Long and Winding Road – was never played on radio and a cheap-jack local karaoke version played instead. Once again listeners – in this case online listeners – will be the losers in the name of greed.
PPCA getting greedy and asking everyone to pay twice, streaming has a fraction of the audience…..
You would hope that this is a temporary measure. As online listening is increasing, I think Grant Broadcasting are only going to slip behind. App’s like tuneIn and the recently released iHeartradio are giving listeners more choice for the average smartphone/computer user, and it is only going to further erode terrestrial radio in years to come. In my opinion, by cutting the stream, Grant Broadcasters have disadvantaged themselves, as younger listeners are less and less reliant on traditional media and devices (TV/radio) for news and entertainment sources.
If the like of Austereo, DMG and ARN are smart, they should start campaigns to lure affected regional listeners.
I do hope this is only temporary. Grant Broadcasters and Capital Radio Networks need to return live streaming to their radio stations as quickly as possible and start paying streaming fees to the PPCA otherwise those stations will be flooded with negative comments and will be turning off your radio stations in protest like I did. This issue needs to be resolved shortly and the Federal Government needs to step up on this issue otherwise this will be a slowing decline in Internet Radio, all online radio including Internet-Only stations will be gone by the next decade. I do hope that Streaming of Grant Broadcasting stations as well as Capital Radio Networks will resume by the new year or the next couple of weeks. Who knows?