Broadcasters, DBS Providers, Incompas Hit FCC on Lack of Transparency on 2019 Reg Fees

FCC-proposed 2019 regulatory fee hikes aren't transparent and the agency didn't provide enough information about them to form a basis for substantive comments, said satellite carriers, 50 state broadcaster associations and Incompas in comments posted through Monday in docket 19-105 by Friday's comment deadline. Similar criticisms were raised by NAB and other broadcasters in earlier comments (see 1906070063).

NCTA and the North American Submarine Cable Association opposed the FCC rationale for calculating fees. The proposed FY 2019 submarine cable fees “bear no rational relationship to the Commission’s submarine cable regulatory efforts,” said NASCA and licensees of the Southeast Asia-U.S. cable system.

The proposal is based on “a rather opaque process that can generate peculiar and arbitrary results,” said the state broadcast associations. They said the FCC should explain its rationale and apparent errors in the proposal. The plan doesn't appear to use the same total amounts of U.S. radio stations as the public notice on station totals earlier this year, the associations said. “Something has definitely gone awry with the radio data used in the FY 2019 NPRM.” PMCM said the FCC didn't give sufficient time for groups to comment, and cited lack of transparency. “The Notice does not meet the most minimum of standard of disclosure which Congress has established for the Commission,” PMCM said.

Without an explanation behind the proposed increase in regulatory fees for space stations and earth stations, satellite companies are “left completely unable to comment” on whether there's “a reasonable basis for such a radical change,” said EchoStar, Hughes Network, Intelsat, Inmarsat and others.

AT&T and Dish Network squared off with NCTA and America's Communications Association. The direct broadcast satellite companies were at odds with the cable groups over whether DBS should have regulatory fee parity with other MVPDs. Bringing satellite fees into line with MVPD fees “is not a permissible basis” for adjusting fees under the law, AT&T and Dish said. ”DBS and cable operators are impacted equally by Media Bureau activities and there is no legal, policy, or other justification for assessing DBS providers a lesser fee,” said the cable groups. NCTA and ACA urged the FCC to cease phasing in higher DBS fees and assess a uniform fee for all MVPDs.

Change the way it calculates fees for the submarine cable industry, said Incompas, NASCA and the licensees of the Southeast Asia-U.S. cable system. Confirm its allocation of full-time equivalents to the International Bureau is accurate, and bring any fee hike into line with additional costs stemming from the submarine cable industry, Incompas said. The agency should begin a rulemaking to “address systematically both the issues of appropriate revenue requirement and phasing out of fee tiers for systems that were not grandfathered under the 2009 methodology,” said NASCA and the submarine licensees. The NPRM is “devoid of any justification” for the fee hikes, Incompas said.