The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), a group representing TV networks and radio stations, is expected to approve and submit a proposal to legislators that would mandate inclusion of FM radio chips in cell phones while settling a dispute between record companies and radio stations over performance royalties for songs played.
The proposal is a response to music-industry-backed proposals already submitted to Congress which are asking for higher royalty rates.
NAB has made it clear that it is opposed to currently proposed legislation that would make radio stations pay record labels for each song played over-the-air, and has instead proposed a performance payment of 0.25% and 1% of net revenues in royalties.
With the addition of adding the FM tuner mandate into proposed legislation, NAB hopes that the music industry will lower its royalty-rate demand because the FM tuner mandate will bring more potential listeners through mobile devices, allowing for more potential revenue.
“If a law requiring radio in cellphones passes, the streaming rates for simulcasts, webcasts, and other non-terrestrial music transmissions would be reduced through 2016,” the NAB said.
Jay,
I noted there was no distinction mentioned between FM ‘standard transmissions’versus the up and coming digital FM, which is alive and hopefully will continue to grow in my area.
Jim
Many cell phones already have FM receiver hardware built-in which is disabled by carriers or companies so as to push streaming services that you have to pay for. Apple’s products are a good example, the chips they’re using have FM receivers in them, they just don’t use them.
I’m not a fan of requiring the addition of FM receivers to phones that don’t have them, but I don’t like functionality of the included hardware being disabled for no good reason and would support some type of requirement to make it illegal to block out existing functionality on a phone simply to force people into using a paid service instead. This would also prevent Verizon’s crippling of Bluetooth (not sure if they still do) to prevent the transfer of images off the phone without sending expensive picture texts.
– Trip
Tracfone does this nasty trick to blutooth AND cripples the USB port on their phones as well.
How about mobile DTV on the phone? It wouldn’t even need to be a “SmartPhone”! What a concept!