CBRA Media Monitoring Tariffs 2023–2025

Summary#

The Copyright Board published two media‑monitoring tariffs from CBRA for the period 2023–2025 on March 26, 2022. They set what media‑monitoring services may copy and deliver from broadcasters, and how much those monitors must pay in royalties (main rate 14%).

What it does#

• Establishes the CBRA Commercial Media Monitoring Tariff (2023-2025) and the CBRA Non-Commercial Media Monitoring Tariff (2023-2025) with rules for copying, sharing and charging for TV and radio excerpts.
• Sets limits on excerpts:
  • Up to two excerpts per program, each up to 10 minutes.
  • A small share (up to 10%) of items delivered in certain ways may exceed those limits.
• Controls delivery formats and quality:
  • Emailed video attachments and database video previews limited to 320 pixels by 240 pixels and 15 frames per second.
• Database rules and access:
  • Commercial databases: excerpts must be removed within 10 days; access generally limited to corporate PR or communications teams with at least three months of customer relationship.
  • Non‑commercial (government) databases: excerpts may stay up to six months; access limited to government users.
• Customer use restrictions (both tariffs):
  • Items must be for private, internal, non‑commercial use only.
  • No use for legal proceedings, political campaigns, advertising or public redistribution.
• Royalties and timing:
  • Commercial monitors pay 14% of CBRA‑related gross income monthly (with reporting and a two‑month reference period).
  • Non‑commercial (government) monitors pay 14% of CBRA‑related monitoring costs each semester, paid by the first day of the third month of the semester.
• Recordkeeping, audits and notices:
  • Monitors must keep detailed records (sales, program details, customer lists) and allow audits for up to six years.
• Deletion/retention rules:
  • Commercial copies and excerpts generally destroyed within 31 days; transcripts retained up to 12 months.
  • Non‑commercial transcripts may be kept up to 10 years; other items generally destroyed within six months.
• Small‑operator exemption:
  • Monitors estimating total media monitoring revenues or costs below $100,000 can notify CBRA by January 31 to use a simplified reporting/quarterly payment regime.

Who's affected#

• CBRA broadcasters (listed in the tariff appendix) — they are the rights‑owners who will receive royalties under these tariffs.
• Commercial media monitoring firms and services that record, excerpt or sell radio/TV clips to businesses and PR firms.
• In‑house monitoring units and other government bodies that produce or provide monitoring services to government users.
• Corporate customers, PR and communications departments that receive monitoring products (their permitted uses are limited).
• It is unclear from the notice whether some specific small or hybrid operations might fall into the commercial or non‑commercial stream; affected parties should check which tariff applies to them.

Why it matters#

• The tariffs spell out clear, enforceable limits on how much broadcast content monitors can reproduce and how they may distribute it. That affects what clips clients can get and how long clips remain available.
• The 14% royalty rate and the recordkeeping/audit rules could change the cost and administrative burden of media monitoring for companies and government units.
• PR teams and government communicators should expect stricter, contract‑style restrictions on reuse: monitoring clips are for internal use only and can’t be repurposed publicly or for legal/political campaigns.