American Cable Association calls regulatory fees fundamentally unfair

The American Cable Association (ACA) has requested that the FCC amend its rules and assess a per-subscriber regulatory fee on direct broadcast satellite (DBS) companies. The association called the regulatory scheme applied to cable, “fundamentally unfair” when compared to that for DBS. In reply comments filed last month with the commission, the association said the disparity “is even greater for ACA’s smaller market cable operators.”

The ACA stated that its member companies represent 8 million subscribers. ACA members pay more than $5.6 million annually to the FCC in regulatory fees, while the two major DBS companies, EchoStar and DirecTV, pay $2 million annually for 25 million subscribers.

For more information, visit www.americancable.org.

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