The FCC late Thursday released its Report and Order and Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on the “Assessment and Collection of Regulatory Fees for Fiscal Year 2021,” and there’s cause for cheer among radio broadcasters.
Why? The initial proposal to make broadcasters pay for a significant portion of the $33 million in additional funding that was appropriated by Congress to implement the Broadband DATA Act has been scrapped by the Commission.
The NAB assailed the plan. And, it appears Rick Kaplan and the legal team at the association have scored an important victory for broadcasters.
Here’s what this means for Radio in fiscal 2021, which begins October 1:
When breaking out the radio station regulatory fees, there is a reduction from FY 2020.
The $975 minimum regulatory fee for Class A AMs remains the same as it did in fiscal 2020. The biggest FM stations would see a regulatory fee decrease from $20,925 in fiscal 2020. This is significant, as the FCC originally proposed this group of stations to see a regulatory fee increase to $22,650.
