Why would I ever want to license music performance rights directly from composers and publishers or through my program suppliers?
If you’re on a per program license with a PRO, then licensing the performance rights to music in some of your shows allows you to pay less money to the PRO. (SESAC does not currently offer a per program license.) If you have a blanket license, acquiring performance rights directly doesn’t make much sense, since it wouldn’t reduce your blanket license fees. 13. How is it determined how much I pay ASCAP, BMI and SESAC? The Television Music License Committee designs the method for allocating industry-wide fees (determined either through agreement with a PRO or by a federal Rate Court) and then performs the calculation of fees using one of two methodologies. With ASCAP and BMI, we use a methodology (approved by the Rate Court) that, in short, takes the industry-wide fee and allocates money to each market based on Nielsen DMA size. Within each market the money is then divided up among the stations based on a 3-year average of ratings. There are two components to the SESAC allocation: part o
