Many stations' payments to ASCAP should show a 30% drop for January 2012.

Two years of litigation and negotiations have ended, with the approval by Federal District Judge Denise L. Cote of a deal reached by ASCAP and the Radio Music License Committee. The Committee says "license fees had ballooned to some 3% of industry revenues" for each of the two major performing rights organizations: ASCAP and BMI. The radio negotiating group says "the settlement approved by the court effectively rolls back annual industry fees payable to ASCAP by more than $80 million for 2012… and provides for a return to a revenue-based fee structure at the level of 1.7% of revenue." Not only that: the deal, and the 1.7% rate, also extend to "the range of new media platforms in which the radio industry is increasingly engaged." The pact covers January of 2010 to December 2016. RMLC Chairman Ed Christian of Saga Communications says, "The new license reflects the reality of our industry's economy and puts the industry back on a sound footing insofar as its licensing relationship with ASCAP is concerned."