Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism Reaches Agreement on Terrestrial Music Broadcast Usage Fee Calculation

'Broadcast Music Monitoring System' Effective

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism announced on the 30th that it has reached an agreement on the calculation of the music copyright management ratio among twenty-nine broadcasters, including the three terrestrial broadcasters (KBS, MBC, SBS). The music copyright management ratio is an indicator representing the proportion of copyrighted works managed by collective management organizations among the music works used by users. It serves as the basis for calculating broadcasting usage fees.

Since July, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism held eight mediation meetings over three months. It narrowed differences between broadcasters, the Korea Music Copyright Association, and the Association of Music Copyright Owners Together to derive an agreement.

The consensus was largely due to the "Broadcasting Music Identifying System," a system that identifies music used in broadcasts through audio recognition technology. It is used to generate music usage lists and as data for settling and distributing broadcasting usage fees.

Broadcasters and collective management organizations have achieved results eight years after agreeing to establish the system. Accordingly, broadcasters will pay the first quarter broadcasting usage fees to the Korea Music Copyright Association and the Association of Music Copyright Owners Together. The management ratio derived through the Broadcasting Music Identifying System will be applied in the fee calculation.

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism plans to mediate broadcasting usage fees for IPTV, cable broadcasters (SO), satellite broadcasting, comprehensive programming channels, broadcasting channel operators (PP), and other terrestrial broadcasters by the end of the year.

Jung Hyang-mi, Director of the Copyright Bureau, said, "We are pleased that the long-standing conflict over broadcasting usage fees has been resolved," adding, "We will continue to establish a foundation where transparent copyright fee distribution to creators is ensured and users actively utilize copyrighted works."