SoundExchange, a non-profit organisation for collecting digital royalties for music artists has sued Sirius XM Radio for at least $50 million for underpaying on recordings, including ones from before 1972. The lawsuit is filed in the US District Court for the District of Columbia and claims from 2007 to 2012, Sirius XM “systematically” underpaid SoundExchange […]
Pandora Radio is an on-line and wireless automated music recommendation service. It offers two subscription models, a free service with advertising support, or a paid-for service without ads. Just over a year ago at its IPO it had 800,000 song titles on offer, and millions of users in the USA. Today’s count (as at July […]
Apple looks set to launch its iTunes Radio streaming-music service in the US in September. iTunes Radio’s exact launch date has not yet been announced by Apple, beyond promising a debut in the autumn – but advertising industry site AdAge suggests that September will be the US launch for the service after claiming that McDonald’s, […]
In time for the weekend’s action Stateside, Sirius XM Radio and rights-holder Dorna Sports revealed an agreement to make SiriusXM the exclusive North American radio broadcaster of the FIM Road Racing World Championship Grand Prix (MotoGP), marking the national US radio début of the world’s premier motorcycle racing series. SiriusXM’s coverage started over the weekend […]
Bauer Media UK has announced its digital radio station Kiss Fresh is to broadcast into almost 20 million homes on the Freeview platform, effective immediately. Andy Roberts, Group Programme Director at Kiss, said: “This increased distribution for Kiss Fresh is firmly in line with our ambition to grow the Kiss brand across multiple platforms. Kiss […]
SiriusXM is borrowing $600 million which it will largely use to pay down existing debt. The bonds will only be available outside the US. The bonds will offer interest of 5.70 per cent, and used to pay down debt due in 2015 with an interest rate of 8.75 per cent. There is no suggestion – […]
John Malone-controlled pay-radio broadcaster SiriusXM reported 715,000 net new subs in Q2, with revenues for the quarter at $940 million (up 12 per cent on 2012) and saw the operator crash through the 25 million subscriber number (up 9 per cent) and the best quarterly gain since Q4/2007. Just about every metric was beaten, including […]
The BBC is determined to learn the lessons from a year of “incredible highs” and some “desperate lows”, BBC Trust Chairman Lord Patten pledged today. Launching the BBC’s Annual Report and Accounts for 2012/13 with Director-General Tony Hall, Lord Patten highlighted the success of the BBC’s Olympics coverage which surpassed all expectations, with 2,500 hours […]
Global Radio is fighting to keep control of GMG Radio, owner of the Real and Smooth networks, and is submitting an appeal against the competition regulator’s order to sell off stations across the UK. The UK’s largest radio operator, owner of network radio brands including Capital, Heart and Real, intends to make a submission to […]
ERT, or the Hellenic Broadcasting Corp, went dark late on June 11th. The decision to pull the plug on all state broadcasting was not unexpected, but most locals doubted that the threat would be carried out. Some 3,000 staff are affected, and the government has said that employees can now start re-applying for their jobs […]