The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has proposed regulatory fees for fiscal year 2009. Congress has mandated that the FCC collect $341,875,000 in regulatory fees for 2009 to recover the regulatory costs associated with the FCC’s enforcement, policy and rulemaking, user information and international activities. This total represents an overall increase of 9.57 percent over fiscal year 2008.

As in past years, the FCC will continue to assess regulatory fees only on analog broadcast operations, and not digital operations. Stations that were broadcasting in both analog and digital on October 1, 2008, will be assessed fees for fiscal year 2009 only for their analog license. Stations that were broadcasting only in digital on that date will not be assessed fees for their digital license for fiscal year 2009. However, beginning in fiscal year 2010, the FCC intends to collect regulatory fees from digital broadcasters, and seeks comment on this plan.

The FCC will open the payment window in mid-August. With respect to broadcasting, the FCC proposes to continue its practice of mailing fee assessment postcards to broadcast licensees on a per-facility basis, but reminds licensees to submit a completed FCC Form 159 Remittance Advice with their fee payment (the postcards may not substitute for a completed Form 159), and to include their facility ID number on their Form 159. The FCC cannot guarantee that payments lacking any of this information will be posted accurately to a licensee’s account. The FCC also proposes to require that all media service licensees use the FCC’s Fee Filer system as the first step in paying regulatory fee obligations.