SOCAN TV Tariff for Ontario Educational Authority

Summary#

This notice publishes the Copyright Board’s tariff for music licensing between SOCAN (the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada) and the Ontario Educational Communications Authority for 2018–2022. It sets an annual licence fee of $360,096, payable in equal quarterly instalments.

What it does#

• Establishes SOCAN Tariff 2.B – Television – Ontario Educational Communications Authority (2018-2022) as the rule for using music in SOCAN’s repertoire on the Authority’s TV station and on its websites and other digital platforms during 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022.
• Sets the annual licence fee at $360,096 per year.
• Requires that the fee be paid in equal quarterly instalments on January 1, April 1, July 1, and October 1 of each covered year.
• States fees are exclusive of taxes and that late payments will accrue interest at a rate described relative to the Bank Rate.
• Notes that SOCAN Tariff 2.B does not apply to uses already covered by SOCAN Tariff 17 (pay, specialty and other television services).

Who's affected#

• Ontario Educational Communications Authority — the tariff applies to the Authority’s broadcast station and its websites and digital platforms.
• SOCAN and the songwriters, composers and publishers whose works SOCAN represents — this is the mechanism for collecting their royalties.
• Viewers and users of the Authority’s services indirectly, because the fee is an operating cost for the broadcaster.
• It is unclear from this notice whether third parties (like program producers or partner platforms) are separately affected; the tariff text focuses on the Authority’s station and its own platforms.

Why it matters#

• The Authority must budget $360,096 per year to legally perform or stream music from SOCAN’s repertoire for the covered years. That can affect how much money is available for programming or services.
• The tariff clarifies who pays for music rights on the Authority’s TV and online services, and ensures creators represented by SOCAN are paid for those uses.
• The exclusion for SOCAN Tariff 17 matters if some content is classified as pay or specialty television — those uses follow a different tariff.