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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 59 / Tuesday, March 30, 2021 / Proposed Rules
there are 4,196 noncommercial educational NCE FM radio stations.
The Commission however does not compile and does not otherwise have access to information on the revenue of NCE stations that would permit it to determine how many such stations would qualify as small entities under the SBA size standard.
We also note, that in assessing whether a business entity qualifies as small under the above definition, business control affiliations must be included. The Commissions estimate therefore likely overstates the number of small entities that might be affected by its action, because the revenue figure on which it is based does not include or aggregate revenues from affiliated companies. In addition, to be determined a small business, an entity may not be dominant in its field of operation. We further note, that it is difficult at times to assess these criteria in the context of media entities, and the estimate of small businesses to which these rules may apply does not exclude any radio station from the definition of a small business on these bases, thus our estimate of small businesses may therefore be over-inclusive. Also, as noted above, an additional element of the definition of small business is that the entity must be independently owned and operated. The Commission notes that it is difficult at times to assess these criteria in the context of media entities and the estimates of small businesses to which they apply may be over-inclusive to this extent.
FM Translator Stations and LowPower FM Stations. FM translators and Low Power FM Stations are classified in the category of Radio Stations and are assigned the same NAICS Code as licensees of radio stations. This U.S.
industry, Radio Stations, comprises establishments primarily engaged in broadcasting aural programs by radio to the public. Programming may originate in their own studio, from an affiliated network, or from external sources. The SBA has established a small business size standard which consists of all radio stations whose annual receipts are $38.5
million dollars or less. U.S. Census Bureau data for 2012 indicate that 2,849
radio station firms operated during that year. Of that number, 2,806 operated with annual receipts of less than $25
million per year, 17 with annual receipts between $25 million and $49,999,999 million and 26 with annual receipts of $50 million or more.
Therefore, based on the SBAs size standard we conclude that the majority of FM Translator Stations and Low Power FM Stations are small.

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We note again, however, that in assessing whether a business concern qualifies as small under the above definition, business control affiliations must be included. Because we do not include or aggregate revenues from affiliated companies in determining whether an entity meets the applicable revenue threshold, our estimate of the number of small radio broadcast stations affected is likely overstated. In addition, as noted above, one element of the definition of small business is that an entity would not be dominant in its field of operation. We are unable at this time to define or quantify the criteria that would establish whether a specific radio broadcast station is dominant in its field of operation. Accordingly, our estimate of small radio stations potentially affected by the rule revisions discussed in the Notice includes those that could be dominant in their field of operation. For this reason, such estimate likely is over-inclusive.
Television Broadcasting. This Economic Census category comprises establishments primarily engaged in broadcasting images together with sound. These establishments operate television broadcast studios and facilities for the programming and transmission of programs to the public.
These establishments also produce or transmit visual programming to affiliated broadcast television stations, which in turn broadcast the programs to the public on a predetermined schedule.
Programming may originate in their own studio, from an affiliated network, or from external sources. The SBA has created the following small business size standard for such businesses: Those having $41.5 million or less in annual receipts. The 2012 Economic Census reports that 751 firms in this category operated in that year. Of that number, 656 had annual receipts of $25,000,000
or less, and 25 had annual receipts between $25,000,000 and $49,999,999.
Based on this data we therefore estimate that the majority of commercial television broadcasters are small entities under the applicable SBA size standard.
The Commission has estimated the number of licensed commercial television stations to be 1,368.
According to Commission staff review of the BIA Kelsey Inc. Media Access Pro Television Database BIA on November 16, 2017, 1,258 stations or about 91
percent had revenues of $38.5 million or less, and therefore these licensees qualified as small entities under the SBA definition. In addition, the Commission has estimated the number of licensed noncommercial educational television stations to be 390.
Notwithstanding, the Commission does
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not compile and otherwise does not have access to information on the revenue of NCE stations that would permit it to determine how many such stations would qualify as small entities.
There are also 2,246 low power television stations, including Class A
stations LPTV, and 3,543 TV translator stations. Given the nature of these services, we will presume that all of these entities qualify as small entities under the above SBA small business size standard.
We note, however, that in assessing whether a business concern qualifies as small under the above definition, business control affiliations must be included. Our estimate, therefore, likely overstates the number of small entities that might be affected by our action, because the revenue figure on which it is based does not include or aggregate revenues from affiliated companies. In addition, another element of the definition of small business requires that an entity not be dominant in its field of operation. We are unable at this time to define or quantify the criteria that would establish whether a specific television broadcast station is dominant in its field of operation. Accordingly, the estimate of small businesses to which rules may apply does not exclude any television station from the definition of a small business on this basis and is therefore possibly overinclusive. Also, as noted above, an additional element of the definition of small business is that the entity must be independently owned and operated.
The Commission notes that it is difficult at times to assess these criteria in the context of media entities and its estimates of small businesses to which they apply may be over-inclusive to this extent.
Cable and Other Subscription Programming. The U.S. Census Bureau defines this industry as establishments primarily engaged in operating studios and facilities for the broadcasting of programs on a subscription or fee basis.
The broadcast programming is typically narrowcast in nature e.g., limited format, such as news, sports, education, or youth-oriented. These establishments produce programming in their own facilities or acquire programming from external sources. The programming material is usually delivered to a third party, such as cable systems or direct-to-home satellite systems, for transmission to viewers.
The SBA size standard for this industry establishes as small, any company in this category which receives annual receipts of $41.5 million or less.
According to 2012 U.S. Census Bureau data, 367 firms operated for the entire
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