 RAIN 7/10: Court rejects webcasters' appeal of CRB decision ·Jul 10, 01:12 PM RAIN NEWS FLASH: COURT UPHOLDS CRB DECISION, UNHAPPY WITH MINIMUM FEEThe U.S. Court of Appeals has rejected webcasters’ appeal of the Copyright Royalty Board’s 2007 royalty rate determination, upholding the CRB’s original decision.
For the most part, the Court did not believe webcasters’ showed that the CRB decision was “arbitrary and capricious,” a “high standard of judicial review that the Courts accord when reviewing supposedly ‘expert’ administrative agency decisions,” explains industry attorney David Oxenford, who represented commercial webcasters in the appeal. However, the Court did find the $500 per-channel minimum fee set by the CRB to be “arbitrary, capricious, and not supported by record evidence.” The ruling (PDF here) states that Court has decided to “vacate the $500 minimum fee for both noncommercials and commercials, and remand those portions of the determination for reconsideration by the Copyright Royalty Judges.” That fee would be very problematic for webcasters with hundreds of channels, though SoundExchange imposed a $50,000 minimum fee cap in 2007. Oxenford also points out that the Court did not take up the issue of CRB’s possibly questionable constitutionality. “This decision really just delays the consideration of the issue of the constitutionality of the CRB,” Oxendord writes (here). “Now that this issue is on the table, it is bound to be raised by other parties in other CRB proceedings. Thus, as the CRB embarks on its consideration of the webcasting royalty rates for 2011-2015, there is a cloud hanging over its existence – one that may take another Court decision, or some corrective action by Congress, to remedy.” RAIN ANALYSIS: Webcasters, by and NET RADIO LISTENERS “FAR OUTPACE” OTHER GROUPS IN MOVIE CONSUMPTIONNew data from a Mediamark Research & Intelligence survey shows that Internet radio listeners are far more likely than “any other audience measurement group” to consume movies. Online radio listeners are 37% more likely than an average TV watcher to go see a movie weekly, the survey found, and 35% more likely to see a movie on opening weekend.
Not surprisingly, Internet radio listeners were found to be heavy connoisseurs of online video. The survey reveals such users are 58% more likely to watch video on-demand and 100% more likely to be a customer of Netflix or Blockbuster.com. More surprisingly however, Internet radio listeners were 44% more likely to go to a physical Blockbuster location than a TV viewer. “Survey after survey has shown that internet radio listeners are the most likely purchasers of practically every aspect of entertainment available,” said Eric Ronning, co-President for Sales of TargetSpot. For more, find TargetSpot’s report on the survey here (PDF). LIVE365 STILL WANTS ROYALTY DEAL FOR SMALLEST WEBCASTERSLive365 has announced it is asking SoundExchange to consider yet another royalty deal that addresses the needs of its very small webcaster clients. Live365, which aggregates hobbyist and small commercial webcast streams, says the new “Pureplay” webcaster deal still doesn’t allow for those webcasters with “niche audiences with very limited listening.” The company’s proposed rate deal would include “the same reduced rates as offered to much larger players,” and would offer that aggregators like Live365 handle the census reporting and assist SoundExchange in collecting and distributing royalties. SoundExchange offered a “microcaster” deal in February (more here) but the notification date for it has passed. We’re looking forward to getting more detailed information about Live365’s proposal and how it  differs from the SoundExchange “microcaster” offer.
LIVE365 BETA AVAILABLE FOR BLACKBERRYLive365 has a beta application for Blackberry mobile devices ready for download. Currently, only the Bold, Pearl, 83XX Curve, and 8800 models are supported. BerryReview says the free application “looks pretty hot” (here). Download the application from Live365 here.share: del.icio.us.  Reddit  Digg  Yahoo  Wink  Windows  Google  Newsvine 
CommentCommenting is closed for this article.  Other stories RAIN has upgraded (and moved)! RAIN 9/13: RAIN Summit Chicago takes place today! RAIN 9/12: First Summit in RAIN's hometown takes place tomorrow RAIN 9/9: Summer holidays, "doldrums" impact July Webcast Metrics, but audience up over last year RAIN 9/8: Clear Channel launches new customizable iHeartRadio beta; RAIN goes hands-on RAIN 9/7: Meet more speakers you'll hear at RAIN Summit Chicago in less than a week RAIN 9/6: Clear Channel taps The Echo Nest to take on Pandora RAIN 9/2: RAIN reviews Spotify's radio-like product Artist Radio RAIN 9/1: UK online radio aggregator Radioplayer campaigns b'dcasters to create "all radio" ratings RAIN 8/31: Execs from Merlin, Triton Digital, jacAPPS and more to appear at RAIN Summit Chicago |
large, considered it a “long shot” that this appeal would meet the high standard required to convince the Court to vacate the 
