The NAB says The FCC has an obligation to collect $339 million in regulatory fees in 2020, the same amount as 2019. Radio’s contribution to that total is approximately $30 million. However, The Commission is proposing an increase on broadcasters and that has the NAB up-in-arms.
The NAB contends that with the havoc COVID-19 has wreaked on broadcasters, they should be given a break. “While broadcasters are undertaking Herculean efforts to educate and inform and otherwise support their local communities during the pandemic, the cratering of the advertising market has resulted in unprecedented drops in the revenue local stations have received. Radio broadcasters have been particularly hard hit because they are highly dependent on local businesses for their advertising revenues, businesses that are now shuttered or restricted and cannot afford to advertise. Several radio companies have been forced to lay off or furlough employees and/or reduce salaries, and some stations have gone silent.”
The organization is asking the FCC o suspend all regulatory increases on broadcasters and consider levying fees on big tech companies such as Apple, Microsoft and Google, who are benefiting off of spectrum issues. “Under the current system, broadcasters are being required to pay for 37.3 percent of the work done by the Office of Engineering and Technology and others that work on unlicensed spectrum items while unlicensed spectrum users pay nothing. OET is at least as much dedicated to working on issues for tech companies as the Media Bureau is for broadcasters. It is fundamentally unfair and unsustainable for the Commission to require broadcasters and other licensees to subsidize the costs of their competition. We urge the Commission to rationalize its regulatory fee schedule by broadening the base of contributors to include regulatory free riders that benefit from work the Commission performs but contribute nothing to support those efforts.
Read the NAB’s comments HERE.
