BROADCASTING INDUSTRY: ROYALTY AND COLLECTING SOCIETIES By : ZURAIDAH MOHD YATIM Manager, Legal Group Legal Media Prima Berhad

OVERVIEW Companies Under Media Prima Berhad

Collecting Societies In Malaysia There are Three (3) major Collecting Societies that are recognized by the Government of Malaysia : Music Authors’ Copyright Protection Berhad (MACP) Public Performance Malaysia Sdn Bhd (PPM) Malaysia Music Publishers Berhad (MMP)

Music Authors’ Copyright Protection Berhad (MACP) MACP is a copyright organisation whose main function is to license users of music and pays the songwriters and publishers for works that are broadcasted and publicly performed. Money is due to MACP for any public performance of music whether live or recorded from radios and television stations, mobiles and other service providers.

Music Authors’ Copyright Protection Berhad (MACP) MACP will pay monies collected from those bodies to their authors, composers and music publishers. For the purpose of payment distribution, Licensee has to send to MACP, on a monthly basis, the music programme returns which shall include the titles of all programmes, episodes or series number, musical works used in each programme and during programme interval together with the name of the artiste performing the musical works.

Public Performance Malaysia Sdn Bhd (PPM) PPM is a one stop licensing body set up in 1988 to represent the recording industry for royalties collections. PPM is authorized to enter into agreements to grant licenses for the broadcasting of sound recording and music videos (“the Repertoire”) belonging to the Recording Companies.

Public Performance Malaysia Sdn Bhd (PPM) Like MACP, the Malaysian Copyright Act 1987 gives record companies legal right to control and grant licenses for the public performance, playing or showing of their sound recording and music videos. Like MACP we also have to provide the Cue Sheets or music usage records to PPM to enable them to distribute the royalties accordingly.

Malaysia Music Publishers Berhad (MMP) MMP is a collecting society for synchronization fees. What is synchronization fees? Synchronization Fees are royalties paid for the use of music as part of another works, for example, as background music in film, drama or TV programmes. Synchronization Fees are many cash flow streams that are generated by music companies. The Fees are normally calculated by collecting societies that act for major music publishers, giving them an effective monopoly on the collection of such royalties.

Is Collecting Societies Recognized By The Government Of Malaysia? Government of Malaysia recognizes the collecting societies and they are authorized to collect the royalties. The Government cannot fix the rates as Copyright is a private property rights and the Copyright owner will determine their own rates. In determining the rates, the Copyright owners will normally see how essential music is to the users.

How Big Is The Impact On MPB The impact is huge as we are paying substantial amount of money to the Collecting Societies. We have four (4) TV stations and three (3) Radio stations plus a big production house known as Primeworks Studios Sdn Bhd We have blanket agreements with the Collecting Societies and negotiation is not easy as they are fully aware of music impact to our stations.

How Big Is The Impact On MPB While the blanket agreements only covered direct broadcast of music and synchronisation, we have to pay royalties for on-grounds event separately. Among Permit Licenses for on-ground events that need to be paid separately for MACP and PPM are :

How Big Is The Impact On MPB Staff Dinner & Dance, Appreciation Dinner, Family Day Casual Performances e.g. Road Shows held in Shopping Complexes or Supermarket Casual Public Performance e.g. mobile track for promotion purposes Concerts & Award Presentation e.g. Juara Lagu, Anugerah Skrin, Mentor, etc. Jom Heboh & Carnivals

How Big Is The Impact On MPB The rates charged for the above are based as per event, per day for each individual stations. Due to the huge royalties need to be paid, each station has to factor in budget in their yearly spending to enable them to pay the licenses accordingly. Apart from direct broadcast and on groundevents we are also paying a separate license for streaming of TV contents through website and mobile.

Copyright And Royalties Awareness As there are so many royalties involved, we need to educate not only the staffs but also the top management as each royalty payment will give a huge impact to our book. Each production and programme department need to plan properly to avoid burst budget. As at the moment we are working hand in hand with the Collecting Societies, we are aware of the importance royalties as copyright is the hard work of the individuals and need to be respected.

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