National Religious Broadcasters

NRB actively defends the rights of Christian communicators through strategic public policy engagement and timely communications. In 2024, NRB advanced four key policy priorities: advocating for a favorable business environment for broadcasters, addressing corporate and governmental threats to free speech, defending the rights of religious nonprofits, and protecting First Amendment freedoms through legal advocacy. Alongside this policy work, NRB kept members informed through regular publications, including NRB Today and Washington Next Week, offering critical updates on legislative developments, industry trends, and member happenings. Policy briefings and original content equipped members to navigate challenges and boldly advance biblical truth.

The NRB Music License ("MLC") has been serving the needs of religious-focused radio broadcasters and digital licensees for over four decades. Because the music licensing landscape contains two entirely different royalty environments, the committee has developed expertise in meeting the needs of both commercial and non-commercial licensees. Content providers that offer Bible-based, long-form programs share unique licensing needs. These programs often contain too much music to qualify for an "all-talk" royalty rate, but do not contain enough music to make a "blanket" all you can eat rate cost effective. The MLC has met these needs by negotiating a new category of music license referred to as program period or per program. Religious licensees that meet the qualifications for this license type can significantly reduce their royalty obligations for over the air broadcasts of long-form programming. Commercial radio broadcasters and digital webcasters benefit from the MLC's efforts through a variety of specifically negotiated licenses with performing rights organizations such as ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, and GMR. In some cases, the MLC directly negotiates these agreements and in other circumstances we can offer competitive royalty rates through our affiliation with sister organizations such as the Radio Music License Committee (RMLC). Non-commercial radio broadcasters and digital webcasters also benefit from the work done by the MLC. Our main area of advocacy for this group is our participation in the digital webcasting proceedings before the U.S. Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) which sets the rates that all digital licensees of music must pay to SoundExchange. These proceedings set royalty rates in five-year increments. The MLC also negotiates statutory rates with ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, and GMR covering over the air broadcasting of programming that is focused on either talk or music. These rates apply to most non-commercial broadcasters (with the exception of NPR affiliates and certain college-affiliated, on campus broadcasters) Finally, the MLC is an active participant on Capitol Hill in Washington DC. We are a member of the M.I.C. (music, innovation, and consumers) trade coalition. M.I.C. is a group of music licensees from a wide variety of industries including television, music venues, digital media, fitness facilities, breweries, and other public facilities that use music. The committee also partners with the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) and the RMLC in advocating for the needs of music licensees and dialoging with the U.S. Copyright Office via the submission of public comments concerning key music licensing initiatives.