Appendix 23 A Guide to Cable Copyright Payments

John I. Stewart, Jr. Crowell & Moring LLP April 2014

Under federal law, cable operators are required to pay royalty fees into the U.S. Copyright Office when they retransmit television stations to their subscribers. A system’s added royalty obligation for carrying any particular station can range from nothing to hundreds of thousands of dollars per year. The exact amount is determined by a number of factors, including the size of the system, what other stations it is already carrying, and in some cases the application of both old and new FCC cable rules. The calculation of the precise amount of the royalty can be exceedingly complex.

This Guide does not provide a specific answer as to how much ...

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