A year in Broadcast
The Broadcast licensing team licenses radio stations, TV channels and some online services to enable them to include recorded music in their broadcasts, so that our members are paid fairly when their recorded music is used.
During the first quarter of 2019, PPL signed a new long-term agreement with the BBC covering its public service activities, including the BBC’s radio and TV services, iPlayer and the World Service.
During the subsequent months, new agreements were also signed with:
- Virgin Media covering the re-transmission via their cable network in the UK of overseas TV channels and the on-demand streaming of TV programmes.
- NBC Universal for various TV channels (Universal, Syfy, Movies 24 and E!)
- Fremantlemedia for their sales of TV programmes to broadcasters and video-on-demand services.
- Columbia Pictures Corporation covering various TV channels (Sony Crime, Movies4Men, True Entertainment, Sony Movies and Sony Movies Classic).
- Scala Radio for the new national classical radio service that launched in early March
- TRACE, a VPL deal for the use of music videos on various TV channels (Trace Vault, Trace Latina, Trace Urban Christmas and Starz).
- Forces TV, for the British Forces Broadcasting Service (‘BFBS’) channel.
- Digitally Imported for numerous linear online audio services streaming into UK.
We continued this work into the final quarter of the year, when further agreements were signed with Sky, Channel Four and for ITV’s new British content subscription video on demand service, BritBox.
In 2020, we will continue to negotiate licence deals, aiming to grow our licensing coverage of radio stations, TV broadcasters and relevant online services.
For more information on how PPL licenses recorded music and ensures the revenue flows back to our members, visit the Music Licensing section of our website.
