National TV and Radio board members discussed with UACCR the royalty market problems

On February 14, the National TV and Radio board chairman Yury Artemenko, first vice-chairman Olha Herasymyuk, vice-chairman Ulyana Feshchuk and National board members Valentyn Koval and Serhiy Kostynsky had a meeting with UACRR director Dmytro Kostyuk and agency’s legislative chief Evhenia Nazarenko. The parties have discussed problematic issues concerning royalty payments that took place in the beginning of the year.

Dmytro Kostyk has informed the regulatory agency that from the beginning of 2017 radio stations stopped the agreements with UACRR, making impossible future royalty payments to the Ukrainian and foreign authors for the public performance of their works on the radio. Thereby it is greatly feared that Ukraine can assume the position as the leader of pirate countries again. According to Dmytro Kostyuk this situation is tied to the fact that in the last year the agency revised their royalty tariffs upwards. Then the radio stations stopped any contacts with UACRR.

The National TV and Radio board recognizes the importance of the problem and wants it to be solved on the national level. Thus, the meeting discussed the appropriateness of amending the relevant existing legislation. According to UACRR representatives, the Agency is itself interested that Regulatory Body in the media sphere would be properly entitled to able to auditing the availability of copyright and related rights agreements. Because at the moment National TV and Radio board has no ways to control legality of activity of TV and radio organizations in royalty field.

Thus, the participants agreed to continue to act together and seek ways to resolve the situation.

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