The FCC released its annual Report and Order announcing the regulatory fees due for the 2025 fiscal year. Fees must be paid by 11:59 pm Eastern time on September 25. The FCC's CORES payment module is accepting fee payments now. Noncommercial stations and all nonprofit entities are exempt from paying regulatory fees.
As in past years, the FCC will not be mailing out notices of fees due. It is up to each licensee, permittee, cable operator, telecom or VoIP provider, or other regulatee to log in to the CORES payment module and ensure that these fees are paid on time. Fees paid even one day late will be subject to a 25% penalty plus administrative processing charges, so timely payment is critical. Pursuant to the Commission's "red light" policy, parties that fail to pay their regulatory fees in full will not be able to obtain FCC action on any applications or receive disbursements from the federal universal service programs such as E-rate until all fees and penalties are paid. Individual requests for a fee waiver, reduction, or deferral of regulatory fees pursuant to FCC Rule Section 1.1166 must be submitted to the FCC on or before the September 25, 2025 regulatory fee payment deadline, and are subject to requirements detailed in the FCC Rules.
Regulatory fees can only be paid by wire, Pay.gov, online ACH payment, debit card, or credit card (Visa, MasterCard, AmEx, or Discover), and all payers will need a CORES Username account, an FCC Registration Number (FRN), and a completed "Fee Filer Form" 159-E prior to filing. The FCC no longer accepts checks or paper filings. Also, credit card payments (whether made via one or more credit cards) are limited to $24,999.99 per day and $100,000 per month, although debit card payments have no such limit.
By statute, the FCC is required to collect regulatory fees sufficient to cover all of the agency's salaries and expenses. This is done by allocating the FCC's budget among its full-time employees, referred to as "Full-Time Equivalents" or "FTEs." The regulatory fees for all the services that are regulated by a particular Bureau must cover 100% of the costs of that Bureau's FTEs plus a proportion of the costs of FTEs not allocated to a particular service, such as the General Counsel's Office, Administrative Law Judges, and Enforcement Bureau. For example, broadcasters and cable operators must pay regulatory fees contributing to the cost of all FTEs who work in the FCC's Media Bureau plus a percentage of the costs of those FTEs who work on general matters. For this year's regulatory fees, the FCC has reallocated the time of 61 FTEs as direct for regulatory fee purposes.
For most services, fees are based on FCC licenses and permits held as of October 1, 2024 (the first day of the FCC's 2025 fiscal year), although cable TV rates are based on the number of basic subscribers as of "a typical day in the last full week" of December 2024, rather than on a subscriber count as of December 31, 2024, the latter of which is applicable to DBS and Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) providers. The interstate telecommunications service provider/VoIP fees are based on the 2024 revenues reported on the provider's 2025 FCC Form 499-A.
As we have noted in previous advisories, the FCC's regulatory fees for AM and FM broadcasters are based on both class of station and population served. This year's fees for radio stations are shown in the table below.
For TV stations, the FCC has adopted a population fee factor of approximately 0.67 cents ($.006674 to be precise) for each person within a station's projected noise-limited service contour for the 2025 fiscal year. For the purpose of clarity, each television station's 2025 regulatory fee is shown in Appendix F of the Report and Order.
This year, the FCC has again increased the regulatory fees for both cable TV and DBS providers from $1.27 per subscriber to $1.47 per subscriber. The FCC maintains its existing bulk rate calculation for multiple dwelling unit subscribers.
The FCC is also keeping the de minimis threshold for regulatory fees at $1,000.00, meaning that any person or entity that owes a total of $1,000.00 or less for all licenses held is exempt from having to pay regulatory fees. For example, if an entity holds three licenses, with regulatory fees of $500.00 for each, the total would be $1,500.00 and the entity would not be exempt. As has been the case for several years now, broadcast auxiliary licenses are exempt from regulatory fees.
Although a summary of fees is shown below, the FCC website contains links to more information about the fees owed, including fees for services not listed below. If you are experiencing financial hardship, please contact us immediately about the possibility of seeking a fee waiver, deferral, or other potential relief.
Broadcast Services
The FCC is calculating FY 2025 regulatory fees using a population-based fee for each full-power broadcast television station, including each satellite station. See here at Appendix F, pgs. 52-95.
MVPD Services
Wireless Services
Microwave licensees must pay a $25 annual regulatory fee per year, payable for an entire 10-year license term at the time of application for a new, renewal, or reinstatement license. The total regulatory fee due is $250 for the 10-year license term. (unchanged)
Telecommunications Service Providers
These fees are assessed on interconnected VoIP service providers, as well as providers of traditional services such as local exchange, interexchange (long distance), and resold services.
International Services
- NO FEE FOR RECEIVE-ONLY EARTH STATIONS
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*David Silverman is a contract attorney and former partner of DWT. Sharon Mathis, broadcast paralegal, also contributed to this article.
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