Source: Mingpao Translated by: aZnangel HKRIA holds press conference requesting TVB respond to royalty charges by December 24th Record companies Universal Music, Warner's Music, Sony Music and EMI are all part of the Hong Kong Recording Industry Alliance (HKRIA) and because of the issues of copyright and royalty of the songs played with TVB, it has led to the boycotting of singers "not getting awards". In the recent days, TVB has said in high profile that HKRIA's royalty increases are outrageous. Yesterday HKRIA held their first press conference in response to the current issue, they announced that the royalty calculations are actual figures. They expressed that they have already made their greatest concession. HKRIA requested that TVB provide a response before December 24, 2009, otherwise the issue will be passed to the Copyright Tribunal to deal with. Before settlement, the singers from any of the "big 4" record companies will not be getting exposure from TVB programs. HKRIA proposed on TVB that an increase in fees are based on: (1) The value of the members' music had long been underestimated. (2) Amount of music users have increased, TVB broadcasted more music related programs. (3) HKRIA gave a comprehensive one-year license to users, which allows unlimited use of all the members' songs, TVB's usage increased daily. According to the above 3 points, methods of requesting a reasonable fee from TVB began. TVB's non-advertising revenues reached a 0.45% benchmark, while advertising revenues were 2.4 billion HKD in 2008, that is a 10.84 million receivable based on the HK dollar rate, so the calculated charges are reasonable. HKRIA understands that it takes time to adapt to the new charges, so it is coming at a step by step basis. In 2008, the royalty is 2.9 million HKD (0.12%), 2010 should be 4.8 million (0.2%) and should increase between 7.2 - 9.6 million (0.3%-0.4%) a year thereafter. HKRIA hoped to get the issue resolved by signing a two year contract with TVB for 2009 and 2010, however TVB was not satisfied with the terms. TVB production director (Ho Lai Cheun) expressed that TVB has passed the issue to the lawyers and will not be responding at the moment. Yesterday TVB's <Scoop> also went to do interviews at the press conference.
how are the charges "resonable" when the market is down and less people advertise, and therefore decrease of advertising revenues, and increases each year is insane.
