4899 - 4832 - 515112

Most people can get through their whole life without knowing what a  Merchant Category Code is. When a business first makes the arrangements to accept credit cards (Mastercard, Visa, Amex, etc.) they are assigned a four-digit number used to classify the business by the type of goods or services it provides. This is in addition to the very similar SIC and NAICS code. I'll get to those in a moment.

The MCC code for Cable, Satellite, and Other Pay Television and Radio is 4899. Strangely it falls under the category of: Utilities and Cable Services. But that's not the end of it. Other very similar services do not fall under 4899. You can see a full list here, but here are some of the high lights.

• 4812 - Telecommunication Equipment and Telephone Sales
• 4814 - Telecommunication Services
• 4821 - Telegraph Services
• 4829 - Wires, Money Orders
• 4899 - Cable, Satellite, and Other Pay Television and Radio 

Here are some comperable SIC codes. You will see these are broken into much more granular groupings. these are used by government agencies to classify industry areas.

• 5731 - Retail-Radio, TV & Consumer Electronics Stores
• 3651 - Household Audio & Video Equipment
• 3652 - Phonograph Records & Prerecorded Audio Tapes & Disks
• 3661 - Telephone & Telegraph Apparatus
• 3663 - Radio & TV Broadcasting & Communications Equipment
• 3669 - Communications Equipment, NEC
• 4812 - Radiotelephone Communications
• 4813 - Telephone Communications (No Radiotelephone)
• 4822 - Telegraph & Other Message Communications
• 4832 - Radio Broadcasting Stations
• 4833 - Television Broadcasting Stations
• 4841 - Cable & Other Pay Television Services
• 4899 - Communications Services, NEC
• 5064 - Wholesale-Electrical Appliances, TV & Radio Sets

 In the United States the SIC code is being supplanted by the six-digit North American Industry Classification System (NAICS code). This made it's debut in 1997. More here. Those are so granular.. I'd recommend you don't even look below.. it's just depressing. Radio stations: AM, FM etc all fall under 515112 which is defined as "This U.S. industry 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." Below is a sampling of the 100+ six-digit codes I see as radio related..

• 236220 - Radio and television broadcast studio construction
• 236220 - Radio station construction
• 237130 - Radio transmitting tower construction
• 323111 - Radio guides commercial printing (except screen) without publishing
• 323111 - Radio schedules commercial printing (except screen) without publishing
• 323113 - Radio guides screen printing without publishing
• 323113 - Radio schedules screen printing without publishing
• 326199 - Radio housings, plastics, manufacturing
• 332312 - Radio and television tower sections, fabricated structural metal, manufacturing
• 334220 - Studio equipment, radio and television broadcasting, manufacturing
• 334220 - Radio transmitting antennas and ground equipment manufacturing
• 334220 - Marine radio communications equipment manufacturing
• 334220 - CB (citizens band) radios manufacturing
• 334220 - Citizens band (CB) radios manufacturing
• 334220 - Broadcast equipment (including studio), for radio and television, manufacturing
• 334220 - Airborne radio communications equipment manufacturing
• 334310 - Radio headphones manufacturing
• 334310 - Radio receiving sets manufacturing
• 334310 - Clock radios manufacturing
• 334419 - Radio frequency identification (RFID) devices manufacturing
• 334511 - Radio magnetic instrumentation (RMI) manufacturing
• 334515 - Radiofrequency measuring equipment manufacturing
• 334515 - Radiofrequency oscillators manufacturing
• 334515 - Oscillators (e.g., instrument type audiofrequency and radiofrequency)
• 334416 - Telephone and telegraph transformers, electronic component-type, manufacturing
• 423690 - Telegraph equipment merchant wholesalers
• 423620 - Automotive radios merchant wholesalers
• 423690 - Radios (except household-type) merchant wholesalers
• 423690 - Radio parts and accessories (e.g., transistors, tubes) merchant wholesalers
• 423690 - Radio frequency identification (RFID) equipment merchant wholesalers
• 443142 - Television and radio stores
• 443142 - Radio and television stores
• 488330 - Radio beacon (i.e., ship navigation) services
• 511120 - Radio schedule publishers and printing combined
• 511120 - Radio schedule publishers (except exclusive Internet publishing)
• 511120 - Radio guide publishers and printing combined
• 511120 - Radio guide publishers (except exclusive Internet publishing)
• 512290 - Radio program tape production (except independent producers)
• 515111 - Broadcasting networks, radio
• 515111 - Network broadcasting service, radio
• 515111 - Network radio broadcasting
• 515111 - Radio broadcasting network services
• 515111 - Radio broadcasting networks
• 515111 - Radio broadcasting syndicates
• 515111 - Satellite radio networks
• 515112 - FM radio stations
• 515112 - Music program distribution (except exclusively on Internet), radio
• 515112 - Piped-in music services, radio transmitted
• 515112 - Radio broadcasting (except exclusively on Internet) stations
• 515112 - Radio stations (except exclusively on Internet)
• 515112 - Rebroadcast radio stations (except exclusively on Internet)
• 515112 - Broadcasting studio, radio station
• 515112 - AM radio stations
• 515112 - Broadcasting stations (except exclusively on Internet), radio
• 517210 - Radio paging services communications carriers
• 517210 - Beeper (i.e., radio pager) communication carriers
• 519130 - Radio schedule publishers, exclusively on Internet
• 519130 - Radio guide publishers, exclusively on Internet
• 519130 - Internet radio stations
• 541690 - Radio consulting services
• 711510 - Radio commentators, independent
• 711510 - Announcers, independent radio and television
• 811211 - Radio repair, automotive, without retailing new
• 811211 - Radio repair and maintenance services without retailing new radios