The Federal Communications Commission voted 2-1 in favor of allowing TV station ownership groups to own more outlets, easing the way for more consolidation and perhaps further disrupting an already roiled broadcast industry.
The Thursday vote that favored the change means companies can own local stations that cover more than 39% of the U.S. They could also own more than two stations in a single market.
The measure supported by FCC Chairman Brendan Carr will allow the agency to approve deals that put station ownership groups over the cap if the agency determines that they are promoting the public interest.
Carr has said the agency would consider such issues as a commitment to local journalism and “viewpoint diversity.” But critics will be watching to see if the rule change is used to reward Trump-friendly media companies such as Sinclair Broadcasting, which aims to acquire more stations, while punishing the broadcast networks that President Trump often attacks.
Carr has made his name by threatening to pull the broadcast licenses of TV stations that irritate President Trump with their coverage and commentary. Even Trump-supporting Republicans such as Sen. John Kennedy, R- La., have raised concerns the FCC’s scrutiny of broadcast content could be violating the right to free speech.
“Sometimes the FCC scares me right now,” Kennedy said at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing earlier this week. “I don’t like some of the stuff that is said on television, but what business is it of the FCC?”
Jeff McCall, a professor of communications at DePauw University said having the FCC decide who benefits from the rule change will face resistance. “It will give the FCC wide discretionary powers and open up any decisions to second-guessing and, of course, court challenges,” he said.
Carr has already shown a willingness to use the FCC rules on the books to threaten broadcasters whose news programming and talk shows disturb Trump.
In April, the FCC called for an early review of the licenses for Disney’s eight broadcast TV stations, a day after Trump demanded that ABC fire late-night host Jimmy Kimmel over a joke about First Lady Melania Trump.
Carr also questioned whether ABC’s daytime show “The View,” where negative Trump commentary occurs often, should qualify as a bona fide news program that is exempt from giving equal time to qualified candidates.
Carr also believes station owners need more leverage with large media companies such as Disney and NBCUniversal parent Comcast, which he claims hold too much sway over their network affiliates.
“New York and Hollywood interests have steamrolled those local TV stations and the broader media market in recent years in ways that run directly counter to the regulatory framework that Congress and the FCC put in place,” he wrote last month. “Their national programs naturally reflect the values of the New York and Hollywood executives that produce them. This power imbalance has contributed to a steady decline in locally produced news — and with it, a weakening of the public’s trust in the media.”
The television station business has been clamoring for the ownership cap to be lifted in order to better compete with tech companies. The station groups say the ability of tech companies such as Google and Netflix to reach every consumer in the U.S. puts them at a disadvantage.
At the same time, streaming now accounts for more than 40% of all viewing, according to Nielsen, pulling consumers away from traditional TV. Television stations are also seeing their share of carriage fees from cable and satellite companies shrink due to cord-cutting. The 39% threshold was set in 2004 when streaming video was still a nascent business.
Declining viewership and revenue have also made it more challenging to sustain multiple local TV news operations in a single market.
Nexstar Media Group, which has an agreement to acquire Tegna’s stations that it is currently tied in up the courts over anti-trust issues, welcomed the FCC’s decision.
“For too long, local broadcasters were handcuffed from reaching the scale they needed to compete on a more level playing field by outdated federal rules that didn’t apply to the largest and most powerful companies like Google’s YouTube, Meta’s Instagram, or Netflix,” a Nexstar representative said in a statement. “Modernizing these rules will help ensure broadcasters can continue investing in local journalism and providing the free, trusted news and information that communities across America rely on every day.”
Adam Symson, president and chief executive of E.W. Scripps Co., the Cincinnati-based TV broadcaster also praised the rule change, saying it will give the company the resources to adapt to the new media landscape. “Local television’s future depends on broadcasters having the flexibility to innovate, invest and evolve with consumers,” he said.
But Anna Gomez, the lone Democrat on the commission, opposed the measure, saying the rule change will only help big firms get bigger and more powerful.
“Eliminating the cap does not free local broadcasters from economic pressure, it just changes who is doing the squeezing,” Gomez said in a statement issued ahead of the vote. “The large station groups positioned to grow even larger under this decision are not local broadcasters, they are national companies that own local stations and increasingly dictate what airs on them.”
The measure ending the cap limits also faced push back from consumer groups and state government officials who believe station consolidation will result in journalist layoffs and fewer voices for the communities they serve.
Legislators and critics of the rule change have questioned whether the FCC has the legal authority to remove the cap independently without approval by Congress. In a memo issued Thursday, Carr said a D.C. Circuit Court and past FCC chairs under Democratic administrations have said the commission can modify the cap.
The rule change is not expected to have an impact on a suit filed by a group of attorneys general filed suit to block Nexstar’s Tegna acquisition. The suit argues that the deal violates a 112-year-old U.S. antitrust law by knocking out a major competitor. The deal would give Irving, Texas-based Nexstar control of 265 television stations across the country, up from 164. And, in dozens of markets, including San Diego and Sacramento, Nexstar would own multiple TV network affiliates.
U.S. District Judge Troy L. Nunley issued a preliminary injunction in April that forbids Nexstar — which owns KTLA-TV Channel 5 in Los Angeles — and Tegna, from combining operations.
