MUMBAI: Super Cassettes Industries Limited (T-Series) has obtained an interim court injunction against Marathi television channel Mi Marathi, restraining it from using its content till January 2009.
T-Series contends that Mi Marathi, a channel owned by Shri Adhikari Brothers, failed to pay royalties for songs owned by the music label, which were used on a music reality show.
Confirms T-Series president – marketing media publishing (TV) Vinod Bhanushali, Mi Marathi had used our songs for a musical show earlier this year and we had asked them to pay the requisite royalties for it. There were talks and meetings with the channel but they failed to pay us and we has to initiate legal action against them….
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The New Delhi High Court has issued an ex-parte injunction thereby restraining Mi Marathi from broadcasting or telecasting any of T-Series content in any manner till the next date 19 January 2009.
Explaining the royalty paid by the channels, Bhanushali states, Mi Marathi has been the only defaulter. We regularly receive royalties from all the other channels. The music royalty for channels depends on the nature of the channel, number of telecasts, per episode or series of episodes, FTC, network group deal, yearly or one off basis. The royalty slab starts at a Rs 50,000 per song basis and varies according to the deal with the channel….
T-Series creative director Divya Khosla Kumar adds, “We have always been a serious player in this industry and to make music work among the masses, it is important that it makes money for the music companies who invest so much on songs and song pasteurizations. At T-Series, it is always no-expenses spared effort. Hence, we come down strongly on pirates and those violating TPPL (T-Series Public Performance License) laws….
When contacted, Mi Marathi managing director Markand Adhikari declined to comment on the matter.
Interestingly, T-Series which dragged networking site YouTube to court in 2007, claiming it was playing T-Series copyrighted content without permission or royalties, rejoined the IMI’s license collecting wing PPL in August this year. PPL took over the job of collecting license fees on behalf of T-Series for public performances of the label’s copyrighted content in the country. The company’s own monitoring wing TPPL, however, seems to have retained its teeth and is keeping a close tab on the broadcast sector, as Mi Marathi has just learned.
