The Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) is currently restructuring APRA and AMCOS licence agreements for community broadcasting stations. Stations have been contacted by APRA advising that their current agreements are being terminated with 3 months notice as required under the current agreement, which will allow for a new licence structure to be introduced as of July 1.

Community broadcasting umbrella body CBAA has been liaising with APRA about the proposed restructure, and has also had discussions with other sector bodies representing ethnic & multicultural broadcasters, Indigenous broadcasting, RPH and Christian community broadcasting.

At its March meeting the CBAA Board passed a motion to support the APRA licence restructure to ensure that all community stations have equitable access to one simplified agreement that covers broadcast, reproduction, web simulcast, AMCOS, and other online delivery including audio archives and podcasts.

Meanwhile the Southern Community Broadcasting Association has written to APRA, complaining that fees are unfair. The APRA responded saying:

“APRA (the Australasian Performing Right Association Limited) is an association of music composers and publishers and our licence scheme for commercial radio stations has been based on a similar sliding scale of music use percentage of gross revenue for many years…

While commercial radio stations pay a percentage of all revenue, community radio stations have different percentages for different types of revenue… It is therefore incorrect and misleading to state that APRA takes 3.75% of a community radio station’s gross income…

APRA has always strived to create a fair balance between the rights of composers and the needs of music users and to apply this across the board. As you can see from the information above, community radio stations are not disadvantaged when comparing APRA fees with commercial radio.

“The new community radio licence scheme is intended to ensure all stations have the opportunity to cover all forms of content delivery including analog and digital broadcast, web simulcast, audio on demand, podcasts and all other online delivery in a one-stop shop approach (they will be able to opt in for web simulcast and other online options under the one licence but will only pay for those options if they are using those services – stations will retain full choice about those options). It is not APRA’s intention to increase revenue from this sector but rather to simplify the administration for all parties.”