IMC-2014/03

Pursuant to the Article 3, paragraph 2.5 and 2.6, and Article 26 of the Law No. 04/L-44 on the Independent Media Commission (IMC), IMC adopts:

REGULATION ON LEVEL AND MANNER OF PAYMENT OF LICENSE FEE

ARTICLE 1

PURPOSE

  1. Determination of the level of application fee for IMC license for all categories of IMC licensees.
  1. Determination of the level and manner of payment of the annual license fee for all categories of IMC licensees.
  1. Determination of the level of fees with regard to amendment or extension of the IMC license for all categories of IMC licensees.

ARTICLE 2

CATEGORIZATION OF AUDIOVISUAL MEDIA SERVICES WITH FREQUENCY

  1. Category with national coverage, belongs to audiovisual media services which, through coordinated frequency network in accordance with the frequency plan of the Republic of Kosovo for terrestrial broadcasting, cover with radio television signal over 80% of the population of the Republic of Kosovo.
  1. Categorywith regional coverage, belongs to audiovisual media services whichcover with radio television signal, through frequency, more than three municipalities (15-30% of the population of the Republic of Kosovo);
  1. Category with local coverage,belongs to audiovisual media services whichprovide coverage with radio television signal, through frequency, up to three municipalities (up to 15% of the population of the Republic of Kosovo);
  1. Category with low power broadcasting, belongs to audiovisual media services which broadcast, through frequency, with less than 50W broadcasting power.

ARTICLE 3

APPLICATION FEE FOR LICENSE

Applicants, during the submission of the application for a license, must pay anadministrative fee in the amount of one hundred Euros (100€) to the bank account of the IMC. Regardless of the IMC decision, the administrative fee in is not returned candidate.

ARTICLE 4

EVALUATION CRITERIA OF ANNUAL FEE

  1. Evaluation criteria of annual fee for audiovisual media services (with frequency) are determined based on:

a)Basic value presented (A) –calculated on the basis of the total annual budget of audiovisual media services;

b)Number of inhabitants(B);

c)Type of audiovisual media service (C) – radio and TV;and

d)Category of terrestrial broadcaster(D).

  1. Evaluation criteria of annual fee for network operators are determined based on:

a)Number of inhabitants(A);

b)Number of potential subscribers(B);

c)Market ratio(C);

d)Average subscription price(D);and

e)Percentage of total budget (E).

  1. For audiovisual media services that do not use frequency, the value of the annual fee is the same as the audiovisual media services with frequency, which belong to the category with regional coverage.

ARTICLE 5

ANNUAL LICENSE FEES

  1. The level of the annual fee for audiovisual media services operating with frequency is defined as follows:

Type of terrestrial broadcaster / Annual Fee
Low power Radio / 240.00 (€)
Low power TV / 360.00 (€)
Local Radio / 540.00 (€)
Local TV / 810.00 (€)
Regional Radio / 1,260.00 (€)
Regional TV / 1,890.00 (€)
National Radio / 10,080.00 (€)
National TV / 15,120.00 (€)
  1. The amount of annual license fee for network operators that provides distributions of audio and audiovisual services will be calculated for each municipality and cadastral zone in which the operator provides audio and audiovisual media services.

Level of annual license fee is determined as in the following table:

Municipalities / Annual Fee
Prishtina / 8,884.00 (€)
Prizren / 3,932.00 (€)
Ferizaj, Mitrovica, Peja, Gjilan, Gjakova, Podujeva / 2,012.00 (€)
Other municipalities; cadastral zones / 533.50 (€)
  1. Annual fee for audiovisual media services (TV) that operates through network operators that provide distribution of audio and audiovisual services, which do not use frequency, will be equivalent to the annual fee applied for audiovisual media services with frequency (TV), which belongs to the category with regional coverage (1,890.00 euro).
  1. Annual fee for audiovisual media services (radio) that operates through distributors of audio and audiovisual services, which do not use frequency, will be equivalent to the annual fee applied for audiovisual media services with frequency (radio), which belongs to the category with regional coverage (1,260.00 euro).

ARTICLE 6

MANNER OF PAYMENT OF ANNUAL FEE

  1. Annual license fee for all categories of IMC licensees shall be deposited entirely to the bank account of the Independent Media Commission, no later than March 31 of the receptive year.
  1. In the case of licensing, the first annual license fee shall be paid not later than 14 days from receipt of the decision for licensing, while the calculation of the annual license fee shall be from the month in which the licensing decision is taken.
  1. Ifthe licensee does not inform the Independent Media Commission that they do not plan to continue to exercise their activity further, financial responsibilities arising from the license shall be valid until the moment of submission of written notice to the IMC that the licensee forgoes the license.
  1. Even if the licensee ceases activity before the expiration time for which time the fee is paid, the part of the amount of the fee for the remaining time will not be returned.

ARTICLE 7

FEE FOR AMENDMENT AND EXTENSION OF THE LICENSE

With the submission of the request for license amendment or extension, the applicant must pay an administrative fee in the amount of one hundred Euros (100 €) to the bank account of the IMC. Regardless of the IMC decision, this administrative fee is not returned to the candidate.

ARTICLE 8

SANCTIONS

In the case of non-payment of license fee on time, IMC will terminate or refuse extensionof the IMC license in accordance with the IMC Law.

ARTICLE 9

TRANSITIONAL PROVISIONS

With the entry into force of this regulation, Regulation IMC -2010/02 is abrogated.

ARTICLE 10

ENTRY INTO FORCE

This regulation enters into force on the date of its endorsement.

______

Adnan MEROVCI Date30 december 2014

Chairperson

EXPLANATORY MEMO

Independent Media Commission (IMC) with the purpose of harmonization of the Regulation on Level and Manner of Payment of License Fee No. CIMC-2010/02 with the new IMC Law No.04/L-44 as well as based on Article 26, paragraph 3, of this Law, has initiated the procedure for amendment of Regulation No.CIMC-2010/02, which will be replaced with the draft Regulation IMC-2014/01.

Parts that changed in relation with the old Regulation CIMC-2010/02, includes the following issues:

-Harmonization of the Regulation with Law No.04/L-44 on Independent Media Commission was done, respectively, reference of articles within the draft regulation in accordance with the Law No.04/L-44;

-At the Article 1, Purpose: was also added a paragraph (paragraph 3) which determines a fee payment for amendment and extension of license;

-A new Article was added by which are given definitions for the categories of licensees with national, regional, local and low power coverage (this is reflected at the Article 2 of Draft Regulation CIMC 2014/01 “Categorization of Audiovisual Media Services with Frequency”);

-At the Article 6, Manner of Payment of Annual Fee: the deadline for payment is postponed from 31 January to 31 March of respective year and this was done with the purpose that the licensees have opportunities of annual planning and to not have additional burdens for the payment of fee at the beginning of the year.

-According to the draft Regulation IMC-2014/01, there will be no application of interest in delays anymore because the IMC has decided not to make concessions in terms of fee payments, and after the deadline set by this draft regulation, the IMC will take sanctioning legal measures to revoke the license.

-Sanctions: was proposed that for non-payment of fee to revoke the license or refuse the request for license extension.

-New Draft Regulation No. IMC-2014/01, does not reflects changes on the level of payment of annual license fee (for all categories of IMC licensees).

2 December 2014

INDEPENDENT MEDIA COMMISSION

Komisioni i Pavarur i Mediave/Nezavisna Komisija za Medije/Independent Media Commission, Rr.Ul.Str. Perandori Justinian Nr. 14 Qyteza, Pejton, 10000 Prishtinë-Priština- Pristina/Kosovë-Kosovo, Tel: (+381) (0) 38 245 031, Fax: (+381) (0) 38 245 034, E-mail: ;,