If you run a restaurant, bar, gym, salon, waiting room, office, or almost any other commercial space, you generally need a business TV license to play television for customers or employees. Federal copyright law treats a television playing in a commercial setting as a “public performance,” and public performances require permission from the copyright holders.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 17 USC 106 – Exclusive Rights in Copyrighted Works A narrow exemption exists for very small establishments using ordinary home equipment, but most businesses fall outside it and need some mix of a commercial TV subscription, music licenses, and, for movies or specific shows, a public performance license for the video content itself.
The reason a single TV can require more than one license is that a broadcast is a stack of copyrighted works layered on top of each other: the show, the theme song, the background score, any clips. Each may be owned by a different rights holder, and each may need to be covered separately.
When You Don’t Need a License at All
Congress built one exemption into the Copyright Act for businesses that essentially recreate a home viewing setup. It’s called the homestyle exemption, and the requirements under Section 110(5) are strict.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 17 USC 110 – Limitations on Exclusive Rights: Exemption of Certain Performances and Displays
The simplest version is the single-apparatus rule. If your business uses one ordinary home-type television, doesn’t charge customers to watch, and doesn’t send the signal to other locations, you’re covered no matter how large your space is. But the moment you add commercial-grade speakers or amplification, the exemption disappears.
A broader version lets you use multiple screens or speakers, with limits that depend on your business type:
- Bars, restaurants, and other food or drink establishments qualify automatically if the space is under 3,750 square feet (excluding parking). At 3,750 square feet or more, you can still qualify with no more than four screens (none larger than 55 inches diagonally) and no more than six loudspeakers, with no more than four speakers in any single room.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 17 USC 110 – Limitations on Exclusive Rights: Exemption of Certain Performances and Displays
- All other businesses (retail, offices, salons, and so on) qualify automatically under 2,000 square feet. At 2,000 square feet or more, the same screen and speaker limits apply.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 17 USC 110 – Limitations on Exclusive Rights: Exemption of Certain Performances and Displays
Both versions apply only to broadcasts received from licensed radio or TV stations, cable systems, or satellite carriers. You can’t rely on the exemption to play a DVD, a streamed movie, or content from an app. And you can’t charge admission or retransmit the signal beyond your premises.
Courts read this exemption narrowly. If you claim it and turn out to be wrong, the penalty is not just standard infringement damages but an additional amount equal to double the licensing fees you should have paid over the prior three years.3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 17 USC 504 – Remedies for Infringement: Damages and Profits
A Commercial TV Subscription Is the Baseline
For businesses that don’t fit the exemption, the starting point is a commercial TV subscription rather than a residential account. Providers such as DIRECTV FOR BUSINESS and Comcast Business sell packages built for public viewing, and the subscription itself includes the right to display the programming in a commercial setting. A residential subscription does not.
DIRECTV FOR BUSINESS offers tiered packages for restaurants and bars that run roughly $70 to $125 per month for the first year of a two-year agreement, covering between 95 and 185 or more channels depending on the tier.4DIRECTV FOR BUSINESS. TV Services for Restaurants and Bars Comcast Business has a similar “Public Viewing TV” service, with channel packages ranging from about 10 to over 140.5Comcast Business. Public Viewing TV for Businesses
Here’s the catch that trips up a lot of owners. A commercial TV subscription covers the right to display the broadcast, but it doesn’t automatically cover the music inside those broadcasts. Music rights are handled by separate organizations, which is why most businesses playing TV also need music licenses.
Music Licenses From ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, and GMR
Music is embedded in almost everything on television: theme songs, background scores, bumper music between segments, and songs featured in shows. Each piece is a separately copyrighted work, and playing it publicly requires permission from the performing rights organization (PRO) that represents the songwriters and publishers.
Four major PROs operate in the United States: ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, and Global Music Rights (GMR). Each represents a different catalog, and no single one covers all music. Because you rarely control which songs will air during a broadcast, complete coverage means licenses from all four.
Each PRO sells a blanket license covering its entire catalog for an annual fee. ASCAP’s 2026 “Music in Business” blanket license starts at a minimum of $345 per year and scales with the number of employees.6ASCAP. Music in Business Blanket License Rate Schedule BMI’s fees are structured similarly, starting around $300 to $365 per year for small businesses. SESAC and GMR set their own rates. A small single-location business should expect to spend somewhere between $1,200 and $2,000 per year to cover all four PROs. Larger operations pay more.
These organizations enforce their rights aggressively. ASCAP and BMI both employ field investigators who visit businesses, listen for songs from their catalogs, and follow up with demand letters. Lawsuits follow if the demands are ignored, and the only real defenses are proving you had a license or that you qualified for an exemption.
Movies and Specific TV Shows Need Their Own License
If you want to play a specific movie or TV episode rather than whatever a broadcast channel happens to be showing, neither a commercial TV subscription nor a music license covers it. A movie night at a bar, a film playing in a waiting room, or a TV series looping in a lobby needs a public performance license for the audiovisual content itself.
Two organizations handle most of this licensing. The Motion Picture Licensing Corporation (MPLC) sells an “Umbrella License” covering unlimited public screenings of movies and TV shows from its participating studios for an annual fee, without title-by-title reporting. MPLC sets its price based on the type of facility and how the content will be used.7MPLC. How Much Does the License Cost Swank Motion Pictures, operating as Movie Licensing USA, offers a competing service covering a different set of studios.8Swank Motion Pictures. Movie Licensing USA Neither publishes standard pricing; you have to request a quote.
Owning the DVD or Blu-ray doesn’t help. The purchase gave you a home-use license, not a commercial one. The same is true of anything recorded on a DVR from your cable subscription.
Sports Packages and Pay-Per-View
Regular-season games on standard broadcast or cable channels are generally covered by a commercial TV subscription. The complications sit with premium packages and out-of-market games.
NFL Sunday Ticket, which carries out-of-market Sunday afternoon games, requires a commercial license through EverPass Media for bars, restaurants, and other venues. Pricing depends on venue size and business type, and you need to contact EverPass for a quote.9EverPass Media. NFL Sunday Ticket for Business The residential version through YouTube TV is explicitly not licensed for commercial use.
Pay-per-view is changing. UFC moved away from its pay-per-view model in 2026 under a media rights deal with Paramount, shifting its marquee events to Paramount+.10UFC. Paramount and TKO Announce Historic UFC Media Rights Agreement Businesses still need the appropriate commercial licenses to display that content publicly, but the per-event pricing that used to run into the thousands for a single fight night is shifting. Boxing and other combat sports that remain on traditional pay-per-view carry commercial rates that scale with fire-code occupancy and can be dramatically higher than the residential price.
Cheaper Alternatives Built for Businesses
A few services exist specifically to fold licensing into the subscription itself, which can be a shortcut if your needs are simple.
Atmosphere TV is a free, ad-supported streaming platform built for commercial spaces such as bars, restaurants, and gyms. The content is curated for public viewing, and the licensing is included. The trade is that programming carries ads, but the subscription itself costs nothing.11Atmosphere TV. Atmosphere TV for Your Business
SiriusXM Music for Business takes the same idea for audio. A subscription includes all PRO licensing fees for the music played through the service, so you don’t need separate licenses from ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, or GMR to cover it.12SiriusXM. What Licensing and Performing Rights Apply to Music at a Business For a business that wants background music more than televised programming, this can be less expensive than maintaining four separate PRO licenses.
Why Netflix, Hulu, and Your Home Cable Won’t Work
Using a personal Netflix, Hulu, or Disney+ account to play content for customers is a common shortcut that creates real exposure. Consumer streaming services license their content only for private, non-commercial viewing. Their terms of service prohibit public performances, and using them commercially violates those terms whether you charge admission or not.
Two things can go wrong. The service can terminate your account. More seriously, the copyright holders behind the content can bring an infringement claim against your business under federal law, with statutory damages starting at $750 per work. Paying for a subscription doesn’t save you, because you paid for a home license.
Residential cable and satellite work the same way. A residential account authorizes viewing in your home. Running that signal into a business displays the programming outside the scope of what you paid for.
Break Rooms and Waiting Areas Still Count
People often assume a TV in an employee-only break room isn’t a public performance because no customer sees it. The legal test isn’t public access. It’s whether a substantial number of people beyond a normal family circle are gathered in the space. A break room shared by dozens of employees clears that bar. So does an office lobby, a medical waiting room, or a customer area in an auto shop.
A small break room with a single ordinary television may still fit the homestyle exemption. A larger workforce or an upgraded setup pushes you back into needing the same licenses as any other display area.
What It Costs to Skip Licensing
Copyright infringement carries statutory damages between $750 and $30,000 per work, at the court’s discretion. Willful infringement raises the ceiling to $150,000 per work.3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 17 USC 504 – Remedies for Infringement: Damages and Profits The “per work” wording matters. One hour of television can contain dozens of separately copyrighted works: the program, each musical composition, each sound recording. Months of unlicensed play can put a business on the hook for hundreds of works.
Courts can also award the copyright holder’s attorney’s fees and court costs, which often exceed the statutory damages themselves.13Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 17 US Code 505 – Remedies for Infringement: Costs and Attorneys Fees A business that claimed the homestyle exemption without reasonable grounds owes an additional amount equal to double the licensing fees it should have paid for up to the prior three years.3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 17 USC 504 – Remedies for Infringement: Damages and Profits
Set against a few hundred dollars a year in PRO fees and the cost of a commercial subscription, the potential five- and six-figure judgments make licensing one of the easier compliance calls a business will face.