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The FCC now has sent notices to broadcast stations about their obligation to pay regulatory fees by August 31.  Last week, it issued three public notices about the fees - one simply announcing that the fees are due by that date, one setting out the procedures for filing the regulatory fees, and a third reminding all filers that they need to pay using the FCC's on-line Fee Filer system.   The FCC's website is operational, and broadcasters can begin the process of completing the necessary filings.  Davis Wright Tremaine has summarized all the filing obligations in an advisory on the FCC's regulatory fee filing obligations sent out last week, and available here.  To avoid delays in processing applications, and to avoid fees and penalties, be sure to pay your fees on time.  And, as set forth in the DWT Advisory, don't forget to figure out the fees due for your broadcast auxiliary stations (e.g. your STLs and Remote Pick-ups), as these licenses are not contained in the fee notice sent to you by the FCC.  So be prepared for the August 31 deadline. 

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The FCC's Annual Regulatory Fee web site, available at  www.fccfees.com, is now active and indicates that the Reg Fees are due by 11:59 PM EDT on August 31, 2010.  A further public notice, which will include detailed instructions on how to access the FCC's Fee Filer database and remit the payment of the fees, should be forth coming from the Commission, likely by the end of the week.  But in the meantime stations can plug their call signs into this "look-up" database and confirm the amounts owed for each facility.  Once the FCC's full public notice is released we will have more details and will post a further advisory on paying the fees, but for now it appears that deadline for this year's Regulatory Fees has been set for August 31st.  Stations should plan their payments accordingly and be sure to avoid the automatic 25% penalty for late payment for any fees paid after midnight on August 31st.

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The FCC has released a Public Notice, warning regulated entities that there are websites that pretend to be the site on which FCC regulatory fees are to be electronically filed.  These so-called "phishing" sites are apparently out to obtain from broadcasters and other entities regulated by the FCC information about their financial accounts.  The Public Notice reminds broadcasters that the site on which fees are to be paid is www.fcc.gov/feefiler.  If you see some other URL address, beware.  Make sure that you are in fact on the FCC's website before revealing any private financial information.  More on the FCC filing fees can be found in the Davis Wright Tremaine Advisory on the fees, and in our prior posts, here and here. 

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The FCC has released its Public Notice announcing the procedures for submitting Annual Regulatory Fees.  These annual fees are paid by broadcasters and other entities that are regulated by the FCC, essentially for the privilege of being regulated.  We detailed the amount of the fees for broadcasters in our post, here.  Regulatory Fees can already be submitted to the FCC through its on-line filing system or on paper, and some broadcasters have already done so as the Commission's alerts about the specific fees that each station owes were mailed to broadcasters in the last two weeks (minus the information as to the final filing date).  If your station has not received such a notice, check the mailing address that the FCC has on file for your station, as it may not be accurate.  Today's Public Notice sets the deadline date for the filing of regulatory fees as September 25.

The payment of regulatory fees is very important, as the failure to pay on time can cause the FCC to impose a "red light" on a licensee - blocking the processing of any application by the licensee.  In fact, in the last few weeks, the FCC has been sending out delinquency notices to licensees claiming that past regulatory fees have not been paid.  We are finding a significant number of these notices are being sent in error, so watch you mailbox carefully and, if you receive a notice that you failed to pay your regulatory fees for past years, and you did in fact do so, get that discrepancy corrected as quickly as possible to avoid the perceived failure from blocking any application that your station may want to file at anytime in the future. And don't forget to get this year's fees on file by September 25 to avoid late-fees and potential red-light issues.

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The FCC today released its schedule for Regulatory Fees that will be paid in September of this year.  The Order set the fees to be paid by entities regulated by the FCC, increasing those fees as required by Congress by approximately 7.5% over the fees paid last year. The fees to be paid by broadcasters are set forth below.  Fees for all other services can be found in the appendix to the FCC's Order setting the fees.  The exact window for paying the fees has not yet been set, but should be announced later this month, in a public notice that will also provide more details on the filing process.  The Order also contains a Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, asking if the FCC should change the allocation of fees between the services regulated by the FCC.  As to broadcasters specifically, the FCC asks if it should adopt fees for Digital Television, as the current FCC fees apply only to analog television.  Comments on these issues will be due 30 days after this Order is published in the Federal Register.

In reaching its decision as to the fees for 2008, the FCC decided not to impose a fee on AM expanded band stations for the current fee cycle - but it will decide whether to do so after the FCC decides the issue raised in the pending Diversity proceeding as to whether to allow licensees to retain those AM stations if they are held by a small business entity.

Fees are paid based on the status of the station as of October 1, 2007 (so, for instance, if a station had received an upgrade in the interim, it pays based on its old facilities).  However, the licensee who owns the station as of the date that fees are due is responsible for paying those fees, even if it did not own the station as of October 1, 2007.  Fees for radio are set by a combination of the predicted population served by the station and the class of the station, while TV station's fees are paid based on TV market size.  Parties holding construction permits for new stations pay flat fees regardless of the area served by the proposed station, and there are also flat fees for broadcast auxiliaries, television stations that are authorized as satellites of other stations, and secondary broadcast stations (e.g. translators).  Noncommercial operators are exempt from the fees.  The fees for broadcasters can be seen by clicking on the "Continue Reading" link below. 

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As the summer hurtles to a close, the FCC has adopted its FY2007 Annual Regulatory Fees, and appears to have set September 19^th as the deadline for submitting the annual fees.  (I say “appears to have set” because as of this writing, the FCC has yet to formally announce the deadline for the regulatory fees, but a banner at the top of www.fcc.gov announces that fees are due by September 19, 2007.)  Payment may be made by check or credit card, and can be submitted either in paper or electronically.  Payments not made by 11:59 PM on September 19^th will face the addition of a 25% late fee. 

The Commission has a helpful web page, which includes instructions for submitting the regulatory fees and a “look-up” database to allow stations to confirm the amount owed for their stations.  The site also contains a Frequently Asked Questions section, and links to the database where you can submit the fees electronically.  In addition, for those needing more detail, the Commission’s full Order detailing the fees for all types of licensees is available here.  In addition, the FCC will also release shortly a guide specifically for radio and television broadcast stations with codes, fee amounts, and instructions.  Once that is available from the FCC, we’ll add a link here.      

Licensees are encouraged to submit their fees on time and make sure the payments are accurate.  And be sure to keep a copy of all correspondence or electronic confirmations.  Historically, the FCC’s recordkeeping on regulatory fees has not been the best, and the process seems to be conducted by a third-party contractor, further complicating issues. In addition, failure to timely submit the proper regulatory fee can block the processing of future applications. Accordingly, it is better in the long-run to take some extra time to make sure these fees are paid properly, then to try and deal with the headache later. 

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