NCTA Urges the FCC to Reject Expansion of Regulatory Fees
Battle of the trade associations.
WASHINGTON, July 23, 2025 – The cable industry can’t afford higher regulatory fees, according to the NCTA – The Internet & Television Association.
On July 7, the National Association of Broadcasters urged the FCC to modernize its regulatory fee structure by expanding the base of fee payers to include broadband ISPs, streaming services, and Big Tech companies, arguing that the FCC’s current system unfairly regulates legacy media companies. NAB is hoping to take fee pressure off radio and TV stations.
In a filing submitted Monday, NCTA– a trade association representing major cable companies including Charter and Comcast– shot back, urging the Federal Communications Commission to reject NAB’s request.
The NCTA argued that since the FCC’s regulatory fees are determined by the “benefits provided” or the burden placed on commission staff, cable ISPs should not be included. While the commission, including the Media Bureau, is currently dedicating significant resources to modernize media rules, NCTA stated that future deregulatory efforts will greatly reduce the workload.
“Our members further appreciate that this process may continue to require a significant amount of time and effort in the short term, including from the Media Bureau, as the Commission modernizes its media rules,” the filing stated. “Over time, however, we are hopeful that regulatory fees will be reduced as deregulatory efforts reduce the amount of effort required to assess compliance and regulate industry.”
Under a pending FCC action, cable operators will be required to pay $1.54 per subscriber in regulatory fees – up 21.1 percent year-over-year. Cable and other traditional video providers will be required to pay $64.6 million of the FCC’s $390.1 million annual budget. YouTube TV and Hulu + Live TV – which are cable TV clones on the Internet – do not pay FCC regulatory fees despite serving millions of customers.
The NCTA also argued that additional regulatory fees could financially impair an already struggling cable industry.
“The cable industry is facing unprecedented competition and loss of subscribers, and therefore the proposed substantial increase in regulatory fees would result in higher costs borne per subscriber,” it said in the filing.
Furthermore, the NCTA argued that the FCC does not have the legal authority to collect regulatory fees from ISP, as proposed by the NAB.
NCTA lawyers Russell Hanser and Mary Beth Murphy concluded the filing by stating, “We urge the [FCC] to reject NAB’s proposed solution to address unsustainable regulatory fees as beyond the scope of the statute, beyond the Commission’s authority, and bad policy.”
Member discussion