Explaining how royalties are distributed to BBC radio stations

A lot of people have asked us how we distribute royalties from the deal PRS for Music has with the BBC. Here is a simple explanation using Radio Cymru and the BBC Asian Network to help explain how things are calculated.

Royalty payments per station are calculated using a station’s audience size and its reach. These figures are obtained from RAJAR.

More details can be accessed on RAJAR figures from www.rajar.co.uk

The BBC Asian Network royalty rate is £4.08 and the Radio Cymru rate is £0.52 per minute. We allocate royalties to the stations from the overall BBC deal as follows:

• Half of this allocation is over the potential audience, half over the actual number of listeners
• BBC Asian Network is aimed at a UK wide audience of 52 million with an actual audience of 584,000
• Radio Cymru is aimed at a Welsh national audience of 2.5 million with an actual audience of 142,000
• Radio Cymru also plays around 30% less music than BBC Asian Network
• Therefore, given the BBC Asian Network had a potential number of listeners 20 times larger than Radio Cymru, and an actual listenership 4 times greater (as per RAJAR), the per minute rate is more

About PRS for Music

PRS for Music is a world-leading music collective management organisation representing the rights of more than 165,000 talented songwriters, composers and music publishers around the globe. Headquartered in the UK, it works diligently on behalf of its members to grow and protect the value of their rights. With a focus on innovation and integrity, PRS for Music is redefining the global standard for music royalties to ensure creators are paid whenever their musical compositions and songs are streamed, downloaded, broadcast, performed and played in public. In 2022, PRS for Music collected £964m and paid out £836.2m in royalties. prsformusic.com