PUBLIC NOTICE FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION 1919 M STREET, N.W. WASHINGTON, D.C. 20554 News media information 202/418-0500 Fax-On-Demand 202/418-2830 Internet: http://www.fcc.gov ftp.fcc.gov August 3, 1998 FY 1998 Cable Television System Regulatory Fees The Federal Communications Commission issues this Public Notice in order to provide information concerning the payment of regulatory fees in FY 1998. If you are an operator of a cable television system or a licensee of a cable antenna relay service (CARS) or broadcast auxiliary service, you should carefully review this Public Notice. WHO MUST PAY REGULATORY FEES IN FY 1998 Cable television systems operating on December 31, 1997, must pay regulatory fees per subscriber in FY 1998. Governments and nonprofit entities (exempt under Section 501 of the Internal Revenue Code) are not required to pay regulatory fees and should not submit payment. The Commission requires that each exempt entity submit, or have on file with the Commission, a current IRS Determination Letter documenting its nonprofit status, a certification of governmental authority, or certification from a governmental authority attesting to its exempt status. All cable television systems must pay regulatory fees of $0.44 per subscriber for each community unit in which it operates. Additionally, each system operating on October 1, 1997, must pay a $50.00 fee for each CARS license held and, if applicable, a $11.00 fee for each Broadcast Auxiliary Service license held. Responsibility for payment of that fee rests with the current holder of the permit or license at the time payment is due. A regulatee will be relieved of its fee payment requirement if its total fee due, including all categories of fees for which payment is due by the entity, amounts to less than $10. WHY THE COMMISSION MUST COLLECT REGULATORY FEES The requirement to collect annual regulatory fees from cable television systems is contained in Public Law 103-66, "The Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993." These regulatory fees, which are likely to change each fiscal year, are used to offset costs associated with the Commission's enforcement, public service, international and policy and rulemaking activities. These fees are in addition to any application processing fees associated with obtaining a license or other authorization from the Commission. WHEN FEES WILL BE DUE Fee payments must be received by the Commission during the period beginning September 14, 1998, and ending September 18, 1998, in order to avoid a 25% late payment penalty. TYPE OF FEE REGULATORY FEE PAYMENT FEE CODE Cable System Subscriber Fee $0.44 per subscriber TOC8 CARS License $50 per license TQC8 Broadcast Auxiliary Services License $11 per license MUB8 FCC FORM 159 Regulatory fee payments must be accompanied by FCC FORM 159 ("FCC Remittance Advice"). This form has been revised and you must use the version dated July 1997. A copy of this form, with specific instructions, is attached to this Public Notice and may be used to submit fees. Reproduced forms are acceptable. Please see "Special Instructions for Completing FCC FORMs 159 and 159-C" for detailed information on how to correctly complete these forms. Unless you are submitting your information on diskette, you must list each entity separately on Forms 159/159-C. Written attachments are not acceptable. Failure to properly complete FCC Form 159/159-C will delay the processing of your regulatory fee payment. Over the past years, payers have been allowed the option to pay for more than 50 entities by submitting the Form 159 information on diskette. That option is still available. Information on how to file electronically on diskette will be made available on a subsequent public notice. WHERE TO SEND REGULATORY FEE PAYMENTS If sending your regulatory fee payment by mail, please address your envelope as follows: Federal Communications Commission Regulatory Fees P.O. Box 358835 Pittsburgh, PA 15251-5835 If you prefer to send your regulatory fee payment by courier to our lockbox bank, you may do so 24 hours per business day (except Federal or bank holidays). Please address your envelope and deliver it to the following address: Federal Communications Commission c/o Mellon Bank Three Mellon Bank Center 525 William Penn Way 27th Floor, Room 153-2713 Pittsburgh, PA 15259-0001 (Attention: FCC Module Supervisor) METHOD OF PAYMENT Regulatory fee payments may be made by check, money order, or by credit card (Visa or Mastercard only). When paying by credit card, please make sure you complete and sign block 28 of FCC FORM 159. Payments may also be made by wire transfer or ACH Debit. Instructions are provided below. NOTE: We encourage arrangements to consolidate regulatory fee payments either by a single entity or by different entities into a single payment instrument. Consolidated fee payments may cover any number of service categories. Multiple fee payments may be made utilizing any of the methods of payment mentioned above. Payers who will be making a single payment for a significant number of entities and wish to submit their payment information on diskette in lieu of submitting a large number of FCC FORMs 159-C ("Advice Continuation Sheets") may do so. Specific instructions regarding diskette submission will be issued separately. No more than twenty-five (25) Form 159-C's should be manually submitted for payment. If more than twenty-five (25) Form 159-C's are to be submitted, we encourage the public to file the information on diskette. WIRE TRANSFER PAYMENT INSTRUCTIONS A wire transfer is a transaction that you initiate via your bank. It authorizes your bank to wire funds from your account to our lockbox bank, the Mellon Bank in Pittsburgh, PA. All payments made by wire transfer must be supported by a completed FCC Remittance Advice (FCC FORM 159) and Advice Continuation Sheet (FCC FORM 159-C), if required. The FCC FORM 159 must be faxed to Mellon Bank at (412) 236-5702 at least one hour before the wire transfer on the same business day. Indicate on the top of the FCC FORM 159 "Wire Transfer - Regulatory Fee Payment." In the Box (1) - Lockbox#, located at the upper left hand corner, indicate "358835." Failure to submit the completed FCC FORM 159 will result in a delay in crediting your account. Due to Federal Reserve regulations, wire transfers received after 6:00 p.m. (EDT) will be credited the next business day. The following information should be provided to your bank to complete the wire transfer: ABA Routing Number 043000261 Receiving Bank: Mellon Pittsburgh BNF: FCC/ACV--9116106 OBI Field: (Skip one space between each information item) "REGULATORYPAY" PAYER TIN (Exactly as on FCC FORM 159, Block #25) PAYER NAME (Exactly as on FCC FORM 159, Block #2) Phone: (Daytime Phone #, exactly as on FCC FORM 159, Block #9) LOCKBOX 358835 ACH DEBIT PAYMENT INSTRUCTIONS If you are interested in using Mellon's Customer Initiated Payment Program (CIP), a brief application form must be completed and a personal identification number (PIN) issued by the bank. Arrangements for using this process must be completed 14 days prior to submitting payment of the regulatory fee. After you have been set up for this program, you have until September 17, 1998 to submit payment to ensure processing by the deadline of September 18, 1998. Please contact Regina Dorsey, Chief, Billings & Collections Branch, Financial Operations Division at (202) 418-1995 for further details. COMPLIANCE Please make sure your total remittance and the amount indicated on the FCC FORM 159 are in agreement. Failure to do so will delay processing. Cable television systems are solely responsible for accurately accounting for all CARS and Broadcast Auxiliary Service licenses, as well as the number of subscribers within each community unit, and for paying the proper regulatory fees. Any data omission, erroneous or incomplete data submission, or payment deficiency may result in a 25% monetary penalty, dismissal of pending actions, and/or revocation of any authorization. You are strongly urged to submit your payment on time and accurately in order to avoid a penalty. Additionally, the Commission will invoke any lawful authority it may possess under the Debt Collection Act to collect any fees due or outstanding against any cable television system failing to meet its regulatory fee payment obligations. WAIVERS, REDUCTIONS AND DEFERMENTS OF REGULATORY FEES The Commission will consider requests for waivers, reductions or deferments of regulatory fees, in extraordinary and compelling circumstances only, upon a showing that such action overrides the public interest in reimbursing the Commission for its regulatory costs. Your regulatory fee must be paid by the due date even if a request is made for a waiver or reduction. This will ensure efficient collection in situations where a waiver or reduction is not warranted and will allow the requestor to avoid a 25% late-payment penalty if its request is denied. The regulatory fee will be refunded if the request is granted. Only in exceptional or compelling instances (where payment of the regulatory fee with the waiver or reduction request could result in the reduction of community service or financial hardship to the regulatee or licensee) will the Commission accept a petition to defer payment for a waiver or reduction request. All requests for deferments must be received before September 18, 1998, to avoid the 25% late-payment penalty. Please submit your written request for waiver or reduction to the following address: Office of the Managing Director Federal Communications Commission 1919 M. Street, N.W., Room 450 Washington, D.C. 20554 attn: Regulatory Fee Waiver/Reduction Request However, submit your regulatory fee payment to the address on page 2 of this Public Notice. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION Applicable Public Notices, and FCC FORMs 159 and 159-C are available from the Commission's Office of Public Affairs, Public Service Division or can be downloaded from the Internet (http://www.fcc.gov or ftp@fcc.gov). Text of the Report and Order including the entire Schedule of Regulatory Fees can also be downloaded from the Internet. Forms may also be obtained by contacting the Forms Hotline at (800) 418-3676 outside the Washington, D.C. area, or (202) 418- 3676 locally. For more information, please contact the Public Service Division at (202) 418-0192, or write to: Federal Communications Commission, Office of Public Affairs, ATTN: Public Service Division, 1919 M Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20554. PAYMENT PROCEDURES FOR CABLE TELEVISION SYSTEMS Subscriber Fees All cable television systems are subject to a fee of $0.44 per subscriber. A system's total subscriber fee can be determined by multiplying $0.44 times the number of subscribers as of December 31, 1997, within all community units in which it operates as defined below. You may pay for multiple community units with a single payment instrument as long as the community units are all part of the same cable system or part of a group of commonly-owned cable systems. CARS and Broadcast Auxiliary Licenses Cable systems holding CARS licenses must pay a regulatory fee of $50.00 for each CARS license and, if applicable, a regulatory fee of $11.00 for each Broadcast Auxiliary Service license held as of October 1, 1997. NOTE: One payment may be submitted for all regulatory fee obligations (i.e., "subscriber fees" and all Cable Antenna Relay Service and Broadcast Auxiliary Service licenses). Payment Due Date All regulatory fee payments for cable television systems must be received at the Commission during the period beginning September 14, 1998, and ending September 18, 1998. SPECIAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMPLETING FCC FORMS 159 AND 159-C FCC FORM 159 ("FCC Remittance Advice") and, as necessary, FCC FORM 159-C ("Advice Continuation Sheet") must accompany all regulatory fee payments. FCC FORM 159 allows payers to report information on one or more payment items (e.g., multiple community units, CARS licenses, Broadcast Auxiliary Service licenses, or any combination). Use FCC FORM 159-C to report additional community units or licenses. FCC FORMs 159 and 159-C have been attached to this Public Notice for you to complete and remit with your payment. Payers filing electronically must include information equivalent to the items on the FCC FORMs 159 and 159-C. You may make additional copies of the forms as required. In addition to the instructions for FCC FORM 159, the following information applies specifically to cable television payers: Block (19) - "FCC CALL SIGN/OTHER ID":  Enter your community unit identification number for reporting subscribers in each community unit within your system.  Enter your call sign for CARS or Broadcast Auxiliary Service licenses. Block (20) - "PAYMENT TYPE CODE": TOC8: Use this code when paying a subscriber fee ($0.44 per subscriber). Please note that subscriber information must be provided for each community unit in which the system is operated. TQC8: Use this code when making a regulatory fee payment for a CARS license ($50.00 per license). MUB8: Use this code when making a regulatory fee payment for a Broadcast Auxiliary Services license ($11.00 per license). Block (21) - "QUANTITY":  For subscriber fees (payment type code TOC8) enter the number of subscribers within each community unit. For CARS or Broadcast Auxiliary Service licensees, enter "1" in this block. Block (22) - "FEE DUE":  For subscriber fees (payment type code TOC8), multiply the amount in Block 21 ("Quantity") by $0.44 and enter the result here. Round down to the nearest whole dollar.  For CARS licenses (payment type code TQC8) enter $50.00.  For Broadcast Auxiliary Service licenses (payment type code MUB8) enter $11.00. Block (23) - "FCC CODE 1":  LEAVE BLANK. Block (24) - "FCC CODE 2":  For subscriber fees only (i.e., payment type code TOC8), provide the name of the community unit. Block (25) - "PAYER TIN":  Enter the fee payer's nine digit Taxpayer Identification Number. Block (26) - "APPLICANT TIN":  If different from payer, enter the applicant's nine digit Taxpayer Identification Number. Block (27) - "CERTIFICATION":  Provide the printed name and signature of an individual owner/licensee or officer attesting to the accuracy and completeness of the information supplied. - FCC -