FCC Releases New Regulatory Fee Schedule with Reductions for Radio, TV

posted on 9.10.2024

- Payments Due Thursday, Sept. 26

Broadcasters have until 10:59 PM Central time (9:59 PM Mountain) on Thursday, Sept. 26, to pay their 2024 FCC regulatory fees and can find some solace in knowing that the fees are lower than what stations are currently paying.

The reduction stems in part from a multi-year effort by TAB, our state counterparts and the NAB to press the Commission to update its methodology for allocating regulatory fees – which they’ve done to a great extent – and to expand the pool of industries that should be charged regulatory fees – which the Commission still has yet to address.

TAB’s FCC legal counsel, Scott Flick and Lauren Lynch Flick at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, advise that TV stations’ fees will be affected by the inclusion for the first time of 2020 U.S. Census data in the rate calculations.

The exact fees owed can be found in Appendices C (Radio) and G (Television) at the end of the FCC’s Report and Order.

Fee payments must be made through the FCC’s Commission Registration System (CORES).  To use CORES, you need to be registered with the FCC at https://apps2.fcc.gov/fccUserReg/pages/login.htm.  Once your FCC username is registered and verified, you can access CORES and select the option to associate your existing FRN to that username, if you have not already done so.  To make a FY 2024 regulatory fee payment, login to the following website using your username and password: https://apps.fcc.gov/cores/userLogin.do.  

The Flicks and their colleague Elizabeth Craig note in Pillsbury Law’s recent advisory that the new fee schedule reflects the elimination of temporary relief measures that were adopted during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Payors facing financial hardship as a result of the pandemic – as well as those already behind in paying FCC fees or other payments – were permitted to “request waiver, reduction, deferral, and/or installment payment of their FY 2023 regulatory fees, provided that those regulatees resolve all of the delinquent debt they owe to the Commission in advance of the Commission’s decision on their requests for relief.”

In addition, the FCC has eliminated the presumption that non-operating or silent stations are suffering financial hardship and therefore should be able to obtain a waiver of their regulatory fees without having to submit actual documentation of financial distress. 

PILLSBURY ADVISORY ON 2024 REGULATORY FEES

Questions? Contact TAB’s Oscar Rodriguez or call (512) 322-9944.

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