OJR: The Online Journalism Review

Online Journalism Discussion

Webcasters observe day of silence

In an effort to protest royalty hikes that they say will drive most Internet radio broadcasters out of business, webcasters across the country are turning their signals off today.

Submitted by Kim Pearson
Posted: 2007-06-26
From the Save Net Radio Coalition:
The future of Internet radio is in immediate danger. Royalty rates for webcasters have been drastically increased by a recent ruling and are due to go into effect on July 15 (retroactive to Jan 1, 2006!). To protest these rates and encourage the millions of net radio listeners to take action and contact their Congressional representatives, a national Day of Silence will be held June 26. Webcasters across the country will observe this day of silence in a number of ways, including dedicating entire programs to the campaign to save Internet Radio and broadcasting complete silence.

Responses:

From Gerald-Mark Breen on September 24, 2007 at 6:15 PM

Internet news, radio, etc. have been fairly strong in terms of stability, as far as I've noticed. Hopefully strategists will reach a solution in an effort to avoid losing these important media sources.