Update: The commission has published a fact sheet on this topic called “What You Owe – Media Services Licensees for Fiscal Year 2024.” You can access it as a Word document here.
The FCC has finalized the regulatory fees that U.S. radio stations and other entities must pay for fiscal 2024. They are due by Oct. 1.
As we reported earlier, radio fees are going down about 6% and have declined for two years in a row.
An FM Class B station in one of the largest markets will owe $19,995, down from $21,190 last year. An AM Class A station in the smallest market will owe $560, down from $595.
The chart for 2024 appears at the bottom of this story (and you can see last year’s fees here).
The commission assesses and collects regulatory fees each year in an amount equal to its budget appropriation. For FY24 it is required to collect about $390.2 million in regulatory fees overall.
Broadcasters help cover operational costs of the FCC’s Media Bureau and its 140 full-time employees, which has a budget of approximately $114 million. Radio and TV stations will cover nearly half of that, or $55.1 million.
In general, the Media Bureau’s budget represents almost 30% of the FCC’s overall budget.
The National Association of Broadcasters and state broadcast associations have pressed the FCC in recent years to make changes in how it calculates fees. They feel the system unduly burdens broadcasters over other businesses, especially nonregulated ones.
For example, state associations this year asked the FCC to create new categories for broadband internet access service providers as well as manufacturers of equipment that uses spectrum on an unlicensed basis. The commission declined to adopt such categories at this time.
Also, effective for fiscal 2025, the FCC will discontinue its presumption that broadcast stations that are dark or were recently dark or bankrupt are experiencing financial hardship sufficient to justify waiver of their regulatory fees. That means that all broadcast licensees that seek a fee waiver, regardless of station status, will be required to submit sufficient financial documentation to demonstrate financial hardship. The NAB and state associations had opposed this change.
