WASHINGTON—A federal judge has set a hearing in the ABC lawsuit against the Federal Communications Commission for sometime in the week of October 5.

On August 18, ABC filed a lawsuit against the FCC in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Circuit (Case #26-cv-2902). It also filed a motion for Temporary Restraining Order and Preliminary Injunction, saying the court’s intervention "is necessary to stop the [FCC’s] extraordinary assault on free speech."

FCC Chair Brendan Carr has called the suit “meritless.”

ABC had been seeking quick court action on the motion and had asked for a hearing as early as August 24.

U.S. District Judge Loren L. AliKhan instead issued an order setting a hearing for sometime during the week of October 5. She said however that she would move the hearing on the Temporary Restraining Order up if the FCC took action in the proceedings.

The FCC took the ruling as a victory. “We are pleased that the judge has now rejected Disney’s meritless attempt to rush into court,” a FCC spokesperson said. “The court also sided with the FCC over Disney on the schedule going forward and has declined Disney’s request for an immediate injunction. The FCC will continue to follow the facts and the law wherever they lead.”

WASHINGTON—In a new filing, the ABC-owned stations continued their blistering critique of the Federal Communications Commission’s decision to order eight stations to undergo an early license renewal process.

In a July 29 filing, the station group blasted the agency for attempting to censor news coverage critical of the Trump administration and for being part of a larger effort by the administration to create “a media industry too fearful of official reprisal to report the news freely”

In the filing, ABC calls on the FCC to “deny the Petitions to Deny, or alternatively, dismiss these early renewal proceedings as untimely and unwarranted.”

The filing also noted widespread public support for the stations, with around 95% of 153,318 comments filed backing the stations. Those included approximately 375 community organizations supporting the license renewals, and 236 elected officials in 81 letters of support.

The lawyers signing the July 29 filing also indicated that Disney continues to bulk up its legal team as it prepares to take the issue to the courts if the FCC takes action against the stations.

Beth Wilkinson as a signatory in this filing alongside Paul Clement and Jennifer Tatel. The legal team is led by Horacio Gutierrez, senior executive vice president, chief legal and global affairs officer of The Walt Disney Company.

“For the first time in history, the Federal Communications Commission has ordered an entire group of local television stations commonly owned with a broadcast network to undergo simultaneous license renewal proceedings well before their current licenses expire,” the filing complained. “That makes these proceedings extraordinary and unprecedented. There is no question why the Commission is singling out these eight stations: Each is owned by ABC, and the Administration has openly and repeatedly called for the revocation of ABC’s licenses, because it dislikes the content and viewpoints expressed on ABC network programs.”

The filing also stressed that the “outpouring of support for the Stations has been unprecedented for a license renewal proceeding [with]...over 95% support [for] the Stations” and noted that more than 275 community organizations and advocacy groups have filed in support of ABC’s broadcast license renewals or urging the FCC to preserve the routine process, compared to around five or six groups opposing the renewals.

The filing also devoted considerable space showing that “these Stations have established deep connections with their local communities—New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Houston, San Francisco, Raleigh-Durham [N.C.] and Fresno [Calif.]—and serve millions of viewers with award-winning original journalism, life-saving coverage during emergencies, local news stories, and locally tailored programming…Seven of the eight Stations rank first in viewership in their local markets for local news, and WABC has consistently been the most-watched local television station in the country.”

It also complained that the early license renewal is part of an effort by the FCC to crack down on content critical of the Trump Administration.

“[T]he FCC has spent the last 18 months searching for some pretext for revoking the Stations’ licenses,” it said. “The Commission has found none, because the Stations easily meet the standard for license renewal—which under the law means that the Commission cannot revoke their licenses or order a hearing on their renewal applications.”

“The retaliation against ABC is a signal to every media company in the country: accommodate the Administration’s view of what news coverage should look like or pay the price,” the filing said. “Across the government, regulatory and contracting carrots and sticks have been trained on other disfavored speakers. The tools vary; the objective does not: a media industry too fearful of official reprisal to report the news freely.”

It also stressed that denying the licenses for violations of FCC rules is an “extreme sanction.”

“Even if any violation were ever substantiated, the Commission has a graduated set of well-established remedies far short of the corporate death penalty of license non-renewal,” the stations complained. “That the agency reached first for the most extreme sanction in its arsenal, before making any finding at all, reveals its true objective: to chill not only ABC, but every broadcaster watching.”

In separate comments, Demciratic FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez also noted the widespread public support for the stations. As previously reported, more than 150,000 comments were received in the docket, with more than 100,000 in the last 30 days.

“When given the chance to weigh in on whether to allow the FCC to continue its campaign of censorship and control, the American public showed up in a big way, and the vast majority who spoke up delivered the same message," Gomez said. "They believe in the value of their local news, they trust those who cover their communities, and they understand that the FCC has no business deciding who is a journalist and what counts as real news. A small number of partisan voices tried to hijack this process into a referendum on a network they dislike, but the public refuses to let local stations become collateral damage in the FCC's political games. The FCC has no authority to police the ideological balance of the airwaves, and no matter what this Commission does next, the record now makes clear that this was never a genuine search for the public interest.”

WASHINGTON—The Federal Communications Commissions’ controversial decision to order an early review of broadcast stations licenses owned by Disney’s ABC broadcast network has now attracted more than 150,000 comments, with more than 100,000 being received in the last 30 days.

At 1 p.m. ET, July 29, 151,523 comments had been received, with 100,801 received in the 30 days before July 29.

That made proceeding number 26-131 by far the most active docket in the FCC’s electronic filing system during the last 30 days.

The second most active proceeding in the last 30 days was the FCC's probe into whether ABC’s “The View” talk show counted as a Bona Fide News Interview Program and thus is exempt from equal time rules. This proceeding, 26-124, has attracted 78,720 comments with 19,053 received in the last 30 days.

By way of contrast, the third most active docket in the last 30 days had only 385 comments.

A large number of comments in the license renewal proceeding were in favor of renewing the licenses, as were the comments relating to “The View.”

The unusually high volume of comments, something not seen since the 21.7 million comments filed with the FCC during the controversy over net neutrality, was largely triggered by ABC's decision to air ads on "The View" urging viewers to defend the program and the stations.

Filings by the NAB, the NRB and other broadcasters have generally been in favor of the ABC station renewals and opposed to the early renewal process. A number of former high-level FCC officials have also attacked the FCC's order triggering an early renewal investigation.

While a host of progressive groups have weighed in on the issue by attacking the FCC for attempting to censor content critical of the Trump administration, some conservative groups have also been critical.

Recently, Fox News reported that “Center for Individual Freedom, Citizens Against Government Waste and Americans for Tax Reform, penned a letter to [FCC Chair] Carr…urging the chairman to avoid setting a precedent that could hurt non-liberal organizations in the future.”

"Our concern is that establishing precedents of non-routine renewal creates a powerful lever that future FCCs — including ones hostile to conservative, religious, or otherwise disfavored broadcasters — would be all too willing to pull," the letter said according to Fox News.

WASHINGTON—NRB has filed a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) requesting that the regulator investigate ABC Television regarding controversial remarks made on the April 23, 2026 national broadcast of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” that the NRB said, “raise serious concerns about the normalization and potential incitement of political violence.”

The broadcast was presented as a parody of the upcoming White House Correspondents’ Dinner. The actual dinner, which occurred two days later, was interrupted when a gunman attempted to attack President Trump and other government officials.

During the parody, Kimmel quipped, “our first lady, Melania, is here. Look at Melania, so beautiful. Mrs. Trump, you have the glow of an expectant widow.”

In the complaint the NRB noted that the incident represents the third attempted attack on the President’s life in the current period and follows a series of other violent acts, including high‑profile political assassinations and multiple school shootings across the country.

“NRB respectfully suggests that Mr. Kimmel’s statement could well be interpreted as an instigation of violence against the life of the President of the United States,” the FCC filing said. “Incitements to kill or inflict bodily harm on the President of the United States are serious felonies.”

Michael Farris, NRB general counsel, issued a separate statement saying that “while the FCC is bound by the First Amendment of the Constitution and federal law (47 U.S.C. § 326) to respect freedom of speech, Supreme Court precedent makes clear that speech which incites violence is not protected. Under Brandenburg v. Ohio speech loses constitutional protection when it encourages lawless action, is intended to produce such action, and is likely to result in imminent harm.”

The complaint asks the FCC to “investigate and sanction, as warranted by evidence discovered thereby, ABC Television” but does not cite any specific rules that the broadcast may have violated.

Nor does it say whether the FCC should use the incident to investigate Disney’s TV station licenses or if the regulator should impose fines for the content of the program. In addition, it did not supply any specific link between Kimmel's comments and the opinions, statements or motivation of the man who attacked the Correspondents' Dinner.

The complaint comes at a time when the FCC is already investigating The Walt Disney company for DEI practices. On April 27, the regulator significantly escalated that investigation by issuing an order for Disney to file for an early renewal of the ABC-owned TV station licenses.

Historically, it is unusual for the FCC to open up an early renewal process and TV Tech is unaware of it doing so in the case of a network-owned station.

In a statement, NRB president and CEO Troy A. Miller said “We should be relieved that lives were spared Saturday evening; but relief can’t become complacency. We’re seeing a pattern of violence in this country that didn’t appear overnight. When influential voices joke about death or treat political opponents as disposable, it contributes to a culture where violence feels thinkable to the already unstable. National platforms carry real weight, and with that comes responsibility. That’s why this warranted action.”

WASHINGTON—Approximately 150 randomly selected TV and radio stations are about to learn that they are part of the Federal Communication Commission’s next EEO audit.

Each year, the Enforcement Bureau goes about auditing approximately 5% of all U.S. broadcast licensees. This is the second set of equal employment opportunity audits in 2022.

The listed stations have until Oct. 7 to upload their responses. Here’s a link to the list and announcement.

If yours is on the list, keep in mind that — unlike in years past — the bureau is no longer sending individual letters notifying licensees of the completion of their response. If questions arise during the audit, bureau staff will contact you directly.

The audit includes all stations in the same station employment unit that are commonly owned, in the same market with shared employees. If the unit has fewer than five full-time employees, licensees must list them, identified by their job title, list the number of hours each is regularly assigned to work per week, and list any pending or resolved complaints made filed during the unit’s current license term.

If a unit of stations employs five or more full-time employees, the licensee must provide significantly more information. That includes copies of recent EEO public file reports, including details on the full-time positions that have been filled and dated copies of communications announcing the positions; information on the number of interviews conducted; dated documentation showing recruitment initiatives; any pending or resolved complaints; and information about the individuals responsible for implementing the unit’s EEO policies, among other items.

The announcement letter includes guidance about extension requests and what to do if you submitted an audit in 2020 or 2021.

This article originally appeared on TV Tech sister brand Radio World. 

WASHINGTON—Broadcasters can now remove one more item from their FCC to do list.

A posting in the Federal Register on February 8 made it official: Broadcasters no longer have to physically post and maintain copies of their licenses and other related information. It was back in late 2018 that the Federal Communications Commission formally adopted a Report and Order that eliminated the requirement that broadcasters post broadcast licenses at a physical location.

At the time, the commission said that the goal was to advance the commission’s efforts in modernizing media rules and removing unnecessary regulatory burdens.

The original decision to require the posting of broadcast licenses, which predated the establishment of the FCC, was most likely to ensure that information regarding station authorizations, ownership and contact information was available and accessible to the commission and public, the commission said.

Earlier rules also required all LPTV, translator and booster stations to post certain information—such as the station’s call sign, licensee contact info and location of station record—at the transmitter site. Although LPTV, translator and booster stations were not required to maintain public inspection files, they had to post contact information of key personnel. In its December 2018 ruling, the commission said it found “no continued need for broadcasters to separately identify a local representative or a custodian of station records and display such information.”

Myriad broadcasters were vocal in their assertion that such record keeping was no longer necessary. In written comments on the issue published in the ECFS database, commenters said information about broadcast licenses is now widely available online on numerous FCC databases. The commission also said that no commenter provided any justification for continuing to require broadcasters to post or maintain at specific locations a physical copy of their licenses, authorizations, or general or local contact information.

WASHINGTON—The FCC has voted on a Report and Order (a final vote) on eliminating requirements that broadcasters, TV and radio, keep copies of their licenses and related info in specific physical locations, like transmitter sites.

That came in a notice that the item had been deleted from the agenda for the Dec. 12 public meeting because it had already been voted by the commissioners in advance of the meeting. Such early votes are generally for noncontroversial items, which this one was.

It is the latest whack of a regulatory weed in an ongoing effort by FCC Chairman Ajit Pai to eliminate what he and a majority of commissioners conclude are outdated or obsolete rules.

The move was unopposed by commenters in the proceeding and reflects the fact that licensing info is available online in FCC databases.

WASHINGTON—Blasting NBC and some of its recent report as “fake news,” President Donald Trump used Twitter to query whether or not it was appropriate to challenge NBC’s broadcast license. The tweet came after NBC News released a story asserting that the president wanted to increase the nation’s nuclear arsenal.

Networks are not licensed by the FCC, though NBC’s owned TV stations are. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai has promised in the past to Congress that he would not penalize free speech “even if requested by the administration.”

NAB issued a response to the president's tweet from NAB CEO and President Gordon Smith: “The founders of our nation set as a cornerstone of our democracy the First Amendment, forever enshrining and protecting freedom of the press. It is contrary to this fundamental right for any government official to threaten the revocation of an FCC license simply because of a disagreement with the reporting journalist.”

Former FCC Commissioner and Common Cause Special Advisor Michael Copps released this statement in response: "This madcap threat, if pursued, would be blatant and unacceptable intervention in the decisions of an independent agency. The law does not countenance such interference. President Trump might be happier as emperor, but I think the American people would strip him of his clothes on this issue. Additionally, it's not just NBC stations that will find this threat chilling, but also smaller independent stations around the country who might lack the resources to fight back." 

Read B&C's story here.