FCC Approves FY2023 Regulatory Fee Order

As the agency then proposed (see 2305110064), the order contains changes to the way full-time equivalents are classified, a shift sought by NAB. The order also creates a new tier for small radio stations and rejects satellite industry calls to create new fee categories for satellites. The order shifts 19% of the agency’s indirect FTEs -- who are funded by all FCC regulatory fee payors -- to direct FTEs assigned to core bureaus and funded only by those bureau’s specific licensees, after “high-level, comprehensive staff analysis of the time utilized in the oversight and regulation of certain segments of the telecommunications industry,” the order said. The order details $390,192,000 in reg fees that are due by the end of September.

"This year's order is a significant step toward ensuring all parties that benefit from the FCC's work pay their fair share," said NAB CEO Curtis LeGeyt in a news release Friday. The order "addresses NAB's longstanding concern that the regulatory fee methodology unfairly forces broadcasters to subsidize Commission work performed in its indirect bureaus and offices on behalf of other industries," the release said. As a result of the order, the broadcast industry's share of regulatory fees was reduced by 12% from FY 2022, NAB said. "Individual broadcasters will see a 5-7% decrease in regulatory fees compared to FY 2022," said the release.

The previously indirect FTEs who were reassigned were found to be “devoted to work that is sufficiently linked to the oversight and regulation of regulatory fee payors” of a specific core bureau, the order said. The new direct FTEs went to the Office of General Counsel, the Office of Economics and Analytics and the Public Safety Bureau, the order said.

The FCC’s reallocation of direct and indirect FTEs is in line with repeated proposals by NAB, but the agency didn’t take the trade group up on calls to reallocate indirect FTEs associated with the USF because they don’t involve FCC action that benefits broadcasters. “NAB’s argument to reallocate FTEs based upon the financial benefit received by any particular service provider does not properly demonstrate that the FTE burden of this work is devoted to the oversight and regulation” of any particular regulatory fee category, the order said. The order does implement broadcaster-backed proposals to create a lower population tier for smaller radio broadcasters and to continue offering regulatory fee relief to entities still affected by the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The order doesn’t create new regulatory fees for satellites because there isn’t enough of a record to justify new categories or issuing a Further NPRM, the FCC said. It also confirms that “orbital transfer vehicles (OTVs) are responsible for regulatory fees under the current regulatory fee scheme.” The order leaves the door open for future changes to space regulatory fees, however. FY 2024 will be the first full fiscal year for the FCC’s relatively new Space Bureau, the order said. “We anticipate closely evaluating the work of staff during the first year to ensure the continued accuracy of our FTE allocations,” it said. With the space industry experiencing rapid developmental change, the agency anticipates “closely considering whether any space and earth station regulatory fee categories should be revised in the coming years,” the order said.