From The Comic's Comic

Upward of 120 comedians have begun receiving notice that they’re eligible to recover unpaid royalties as part of a proposed $11 million class-action settlement by Paramount Global and Comedy Central Records doing business as Comedy Partners.

The settlement comes almost four years after stand-up comedian Joe Zimmerman, who released his 2018 album “Innocence” with Comedy Central Records, initially learned that “Comedy Partners was collecting his share of the public performance royalties from SiriusXM via a direct licensing agreement with SiriusXM. The direct license limited Zimmerman’s ability to collect his royalty share through SoundExchange, the statutorily created collection agency that would have otherwise collected and paid Zimmerman for his share of the public performance royalties.”

That quote comes from the order filed March 11 by U.S. District Judge Vernon S. Broderick in the Southern District of New York, granting preliminary approval to creating a n $11 million settlement fund in response to class-action lawsuits filed by comedians Zimmerman, Anthony DeVito, Sean Donnelly and Myq Kaplan. All of them reported similarly losing out on Sound Exchange payouts for SiriusXM airplay of tracks from their albums with Comedy Central. For Kaplan, that includes 2013’s “Meat Robot”; for DeVito, 2017’s “Dream Occupation;” and for Donnelly, his 2015 album, “Manual Labor Face.”

In all, about 120 comedians lost out on unpaid royalties from having jokes from their Comedy Central albums played on SiriusXM in a period spanning almost a decade, from May 19, 2013, through Dec. 31, 2022.

The proposed settlement from Kaplan v. Comedy Partners, No. 22 Civ. 9355 (VSB) (S.D.N.Y.) and Zimmerman et al. v. Paramount Global et al., No. 23 Civ. 2409 (VSB) (S.D.N.Y.) includes legalese stressing that “Comedy Partners denies any fault, wrongdoing or liability and has agreed to the Settlement to avoid the expense, risk, delay, and uncertainty of further litigation.”

The plaintiffs alleged the sum owed to all of the comics with Comedy Central Records albums spun on SiriusXM could’ve surpassed $16 million, but the $11 million settlement also put a halt to all of the legal back-and-forth.

And that $11 Settlment Fund will likely result in about $7.2 million in actual payouts to the stand-ups who don’t opt out.

That’s once you take out up to $3.77 million in legal fees and awards, another $28,000 in administrative fees, and $20,000 divided among the four plaintiffs.

Divided equally, each comic would stand to gain $60,000 in previously unpaid royalties. But the actual payout would be calculated based upon actual airplay across SiriusXM’s comedy stations during the time period versus the rest of the class “(the # of Plays of Each Individual Class Member’s Recordings transmitted via SiriusXM Radio between May 19, 2013 and December 31, 2022) divided by (the total # of plays of all Class Member Recordings).”

From the court order: “Although each Class Member will receive a different amount, the variations in payments bear a direct, pro rata relationship to the variations in out-of-pocket damages sustained by each class member based on the number of times SiriusXM played their works without royalty compensation.”

Eligible comedians don’t have to do anything, but do have a June 9 deadline if they wish to opt-out or otherwise challenge the settlement, with the court holding a final fairness hearing on July 22.

While Comedy Central has its own radio channel on SiriusXM, the satellite radio giant currently broadcasts comedy tracks across eight different comedy-branded channels, including channels partnering with Jeff Foxworthy and Larry the Cable Guy (Jeff & Larry’s Comedy Roundup), Kevin Hart’s Laugh Out Loud Radio, Netflix is a Joke Radio, as well as She’s So Funny, Comedy Greats, Pure Comedy, and Raw Comedy.

The proposed settlement also does not include or preclude royalty claims comedians may have with other streaming platforms, with SiriusXM since Dec. 31, 2022, or with any other claims of unpaid usage of their comedy tracks by Comedy Partners (fun fact: still the official business name for Comedy Central under Paramount Global that dates back to the original merger of Viacom’s Ha! and HBO/Time Warner’s The Comedy Channel that birthed Comedy Central in 1991).

This all came to a head in 2022. Whereas Zimmerman had learned about Comedy Central’s peculiar licensing agreement with SiriusXM a year earlier while seeking damages over “public performance” rights, he initially had filed a suit with co-plaintiffs DeVito and Donnelly in August 2022, seeking “copyright applications with the Library of Congress in order to perfect and pursue their rights.” A few months later, Kaplan sued specifically over the lack of royalty payments through Sound Exchange from SiriusXM. In March 2023, Zimmerman, DeVito and Donnelly followed suit with their suit, and in May 2024, the judge approved consolidating the two class-action suits into one.

And after 18 months of negotiations that included a mediator, the court approved this potential Comedy Partners Settlement last month.

If you haven’t received notice yet and think you might be impacted, check out https://www.ccrsettlement.com/

Here’s the postcard notice: