The head of the Federal Communications Commission announced Wednesday that the agency plans to vote on doing away with an 85-year-old regulation that prevents broadcasters from owning stations that collectively reach more than 39% of all television households across the United States.
FCC Chair Brendan Carr confirmed the upcoming vote, saying the agency intends to replace the longstanding ownership ceiling with a new approach that would evaluate proposed deals individually. “Our new proposal would allow the FCC to approve deals that exceed the 39 percent cap, but only if doing so would promote the public interest,” Carr wrote in an essay released Wednesday.
Currently, stations with weaker over-the-air broadcast signals can be counted only partially when calculating how much of the country a company’s holdings cover.
Opponents of the move argue that lifting the cap is not within the FCC’s authority and that such a decision belongs to Congress. They also warn the change could result in a handful of large companies gaining an outsized grip on the nation’s local television landscape.
Back in March, the FCC gave its blessing to the $3.54 billion purchase of local television station owner Tegna by Nexstar, even as Democratic-led states pushed back against the deal. If the acquisition survives legal challenges, it would extend Nexstar’s reach to cover 80% of U.S. TV households. The FCC acknowledged it was waiving the 39% rule to approve that transaction. A federal judge has since put the deal on hold while a court challenge plays out.
President Donald Trump voiced support for the Nexstar-Tegna deal in February. Trump has also repeatedly called on Carr to pull the broadcast licenses of NBC stations owned by Comcast and ABC stations, and Carr launched an early license review of the eight ABC stations owned by Disney. Free speech advocates have accused Carr of trampling on the First Amendment rights of broadcasters.
FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez, a Democrat, pushed back strongly against the proposed change, stating that the ownership cap “reflects Congress’ judgment that excessive concentration threatens competition, localism, and viewpoint diversity. It is not a suggestion. It is the law.”
The National Association of Broadcasters, however, welcomed Carr’s announcement, saying the move “reflects the understanding that decades-old ownership restrictions that apply only to broadcasters – and none of our competitors – are out of step with today’s media marketplace.”
