FCC Releases Order Setting FY2024 Regulatory Fees

Today, the Federal Communications Commission released its Report and Order setting this year’s annual regulatory fee amounts.  Payments will be made electronically via the FCC’s Commission Registration System (CORES), but the FCC has yet to announce the date the system will open or the date the fees are due.  Given that the fees must be collected before the end of this month, that announcement is expected very soon.

For fiscal year (FY) 2024, the FCC will be collecting a total of $390,192,000 to fund the FCC’s operations, the same amount as last year.  For the second year in a row, however, broadcasters will see a decrease in their regulatory fees.  As we noted in 2023, this decrease can be credited at least in part to the years-long effort by state broadcasters associations and the NAB to persuade the FCC to reevaluate its methodology for allocating regulatory fees and to expand the pool of entities that are charged regulatory fees.  These past few years have seen significant progress on the first initiative, resulting in this year’s reduced fees, but the battle to convince the FCC to expand its payor base (as dictated by the governing statute) continues.

For television stations, the FCC will use the same population-based methodology for FY 2024 as it used in FY 2023.  However, the FCC has adopted a fee of $.006598 per-person-served for FY 2024, which is a decrease from the $.007799 per-person-served used for FY 2023 TV regulatory fees.  Some additional shifts will be caused by FY 2024 fees being the first to incorporate 2020 U.S. Census data into these calculations.

Radio broadcasters will also see a decrease in their regulatory fees this year, with a reduction of approximately 5% across the board.  To determine the precise regulatory fees owed, broadcasters should consult Appendices C (Radio) and G (Television) at the end of the Report and Order.

Another change for FY 2024 is the elimination of the temporary relief measures that were adopted during the COVID-19 pandemic.  The FCC had provided relief to payors facing financial hardship as a result of the pandemic, including allowing regulatees in “red light” status (those already behind on regulatory fee or other payments to the FCC) 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.”

For FY 2024, the FCC is ending this relief, explaining that, absent a separate waiver or payment in full of all outstanding amounts, “the Commission will not act on and will dismiss a request for waiver, reduction, deferral and/or installment payment relief filed by a fee payor if the fee payor is on red light” and announcing that “parties seeking waiver, reduction and/or deferral of their regulatory fees must submit with their requests the financial documents that demonstrate financial hardship.  Documents submitted after a request is filed will not be considered and failure to submit any supporting financial documents with a request will result in dismissal and/or denial of the request.”

The Commission also adopted its proposal to eliminate 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.  The FCC announced it would end this presumption, and that dark stations seeking relief will in the future be required to provide supporting documentation with any fee waiver requests.  However, it announced that this change will not go into effect until FY 2025, so dark stations can still rely on this presumption for seeking relief from FY 2024 regulatory fees.

Although the regulatory fee deadline has yet to be announced, stations should begin to prepare now, since there will be little time between that announcement and the deadline to make the filing and payment.  This is especially true for any stations unable to make their regulatory fee payment and which will therefore need to seek relief, such as a payment plan or reduction/deferral of their fees, given the higher burden they will have this year to submit all required documentation to support that relief request by the payment deadline.