TV Ancillary/Supplemental Services Reports Due December 1

By December 1, 2015, commercial and noncommercial digital television licensees must file an annual DTV Ancillary/Supplementary Services Report stating whether any of their television stations provided ancillary or supplementary digital services at any time between October 1, 2014 and September 30, 2015. For each station that provided ancillary or supplementary services during this period, the licensee must also remit to the FCC an amount equal to 5% of the gross revenue received by the station for the provision of such services, including subscription charges or fees paid or received as a result of any third party compensation. Ancillary and supplementary services include, but are not limited to, computer software distribution, data transmissions, teletext, interactive materials, paging services, and subscription video. Ancillary and supplementary services do not include free broadcast programming streams. Accordingly, free multicast programming streams are not required to be reported.

The Ancillary/Supplementary Services Report is now filed in the FCC’s Licensing and Management System (LMS) on Form 2100 – Schedule G, and now allows a licensee to file a single report for all of its licensed television stations. In prior years, the Report was filed in the FCC’s Consolidated Database System (CDBS) on Form 317, and each station filed its own individual report. Form 2100 – Schedule G must be submitted for full power commercial and noncommercial television stations operated pursuant to FCC licenses or permits, including stations operated under special temporary authority (“STA”), and for digital Class A, low power television, and television translator stations operating pursuant to an FCC license or an STA.

If you have any questions concerning the preparation and filing of the Annual DTV Ancillary/Supplementary Services Report, or whether fees are due for your station(s), please contact your primary attorney in our office.