SESAC reaches $58.5 million settlement with Television Music License Committee

SESAC reached a $58.5 million settlement with the Television Music License Committee (TMLC) over a class-action antitrust suit on music performing rights, TMLC said Wednesday (http://bit.ly/1zb884N). In the suit, TMLC accused SESAC of “overcharging local television stations since 2008,” the release said. The settlement was filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, and the case had been set for trial in March, the release said. SESAC will pay the $58.5 million into a fund that will reimburse stations for excess SESAC fees gong back to 2008, and will negotiate industry wide agreements with the TMLC for 20 years starting in 2016, it said. The settlement also restores a per program license option that allows stations to negotiate directly with SESAC-affiliated composers, and SESAC agreed not to “interfere with negotiations between its affiliated composer/publishers and stations,” it said.