NEW DELHI: Even as the Supreme Court postponed the hearing of the matter to 5 April, its stay on the order of the Copyright Board concerning royalties to be paid to artistes for broadcasting music by radio operators will continue.

The division bench of the Court comprising Justice Altamas Kabir and Justice Cyriac Joseph had stayed the order on 18 March and listed the matter for today.

The Copyright Board earlier fixed a royalty of two per cent of the net advertising revenue of each radio station including Entertainment Network (I) Ltd (ENIL) after earlier Supreme Court directions. This two per cent royalty was to be proportionately divided between all parties.

Phonographic Performance Ltd. had argued that many voluntary licensees are paying between Rs 500 to Rs.900 per hour of broadcast as compared to Rs. 600 paid by All India Radio (AIR) per hour of broadcast. They argued that both the rates are more than the rate fixed as per the Copyright Board's order of two per cent of the advertising revenue.

An initial order fixing the rate at Rs.661 by the Copyright Board had been set aside by the Bombay High Court and the Supreme Court had affirmed that order and directed the Copyright board to set a revised rate after taking into consideration rates being paid by various broadcasters including that of AIR.

The Bench stated that in its view the benchmark should be the rate as paid by AIR. However, the Copyright Board had decided not to apply the rate as was being paid by AIR.

Petitioner ENIL is a subsidiary of Bennett, Coleman & Company Limited and owns 32 Radio Mirchi 98.3 FM radio stations across the country.