HBO, Composers’ Group Reach Settlement: The music...

HBO, Composers’ Group Reach Settlement: The music composers’ group Broadcast Music Inc. settled its legal dispute with Home Box Office over music licensing fees. The agreement calls for HBO to pay BMI a yearly license fee of a little more than $3 million through 1992 or 15 cents per HBO cable subscriber. BMI, a nonprofit concern that represents about 67,000 songwriters and 38,000 music publishers, failed to resolve whether it can collect millions of dollars in additional music royalties from the cable industry. That issue will apparently be settled in a pending case in federal court in Washington involving BMI and the National Cable Television Assn.