The Federal Communications Commission has indicated it will vote on a bill on Aug. 6 that would eliminate long-standing television station ownership caps, preventing owners from controlling stations with more than 39% of the market, and replace them with individual reviews of transactions that could be submitted to regulators.
“National programmers can now distribute their programming 100 percent of the country, either through their own streaming services or through agreements with national ‘virtual cable companies’ like YouTube TV. To this point, the cap no longer constrains their control over distribution,” FCC Chairman Brendan Kerr said in an op-ed for Breetbart. “Other players in today’s media market are not limited by this cap either. Cable channels like MS NOW can reach 100 percent of the country. Social media sites from Bluesky to X can reach 100 percent of the country. Netflix can also reach 100 percent. So do podcasts and all other forms of digital content.”
The FCC’s decision to lift the cap could have an immediate impact. Nexstar, one of the largest television station owners in the United States, has been blocked by a federal court from completing its recent acquisition of Tegna, a smaller television station owner, on the grounds that the deal would have given Nexstar too much control over local television assets across the country. Nexstar also owns national broadcast stations, including the CW broadcast network and cable news station NewsNation.
Nexstar supports this move. “The FCC’s decision to review the national television ownership cap is a welcome and long-overdue step toward bringing broadcast regulation into the modern media market,” the company said in a statement. “These rules were last updated before Netflix streamed a single movie, before the first iPhone came out, and before Instagram even existed, and they continue to select local stations based on a competitive environment that disappeared with the VCR. No one is suggesting limiting the reach of YouTube, Amazon, or CNN. Yet local stations are still forced to compete under rules written for another century.”
Industry groups representing television stations praised the initiative. The National Association of Broadcasters said, “We commend Chairman Carr and the FCC for moving forward with an order that would eliminate the national TV ownership cap, which applies only to broadcasters and does not apply to their competitors. Decades-old ownership restrictions, which apply only to broadcasters and do not apply to competitors, are no longer relevant to today’s media. “This move reflects a recognition that we are not aligned with the market. This move will strengthen local stations’ competitiveness and ensure they invest in and provide the most trusted and freely available news and information to their communities,” the organization said. sports and entertainment. ”
The FCC said its decision to lift the cap does not mean future transactions that may occur before it will be automatically approved. “There may be transactions that exceed the national limit of 39% that do not promote the public interest, and those transactions will be rejected,” the regulator said on Wednesday. “On the other hand, there may be transactions that exceed the cap that advance the public interest and may be approved by the commission.”
In recent months, there have been signs that station owners may be gaining new power. Last September, Nexstar and Sinclair, another large TV station owner, announced they would preempt ABC’s late-night show Jimmy Kimmel Live after the host made comments about the murder of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. The Disney Network canceled Kimmel’s show for several days to consider the issue before bringing him back on the air. Kimmel addressed the comments and the uproar surrounding them on his first television show since his suspension.
