FCC Orders Early Review of ABC-Owned Broadcast Station Licenses

WASHINGTON—In the wake of ongoing calls by President Trump for ABC to fire late-night host Jimmy Kimmel, the Federal Communications Commission's Media Bureau has significantly escalated its ongoing investigation of the Walt Disney Company by issuing an order that Disney’s ABC-owned stations must file for an early license renewal by May 28.

Asking for an early license renewal is extremely rare and almost never involves network-owned stations.

In a order issued on April 28, 2026, the FCC referred to its ongoing investigation of Disney DEI policies but the move follows months of comments by President Trump and FCC Chair Brendan Carr suggesting that the ABC stations should lose their licenses over comments made by ABC’s late night host Jimmy Kimmel.

In the last 14 months, The FCC has also launched highly controversial investigations of ABC-, CBS- and NBC-owned stations into allegations of “biased” news coverage of President Donald Trump. Since becoming FCC Chair, Carr has repeatedly argued that the regulator has the power to punish broadcasters and potentially even remove broadcast licenses from stations violating “public interest” and “news distortion” rules. (TV Tech’s coverage of that petition is available here.)

The order subjecting the ABC owned stations to an early license renewal process came the same day that the RTDNA and a number of former FCC officials filed court papers attacking the FCC to attempting to chill free speech by threatening licenses of broadcast stations who provided critical coverage of the Trump administration.

Carr has also made a crackdown on DEI one of his signature policy pushes. In an April 27 interview he called Disney's DEI policies "pretty bad. There’s evidence suggests that Disney literally was dividing and categorizing employees based on race and gender."

Carr has also opened up DEI investigations of Comcast and required companies seeking regulatory approval for major deals to end their DEI policies. To obtain approval of mergers, Verizon, Paramount, Nexstar, Charter, AT&T and others have all agreed to abandon their efforts to promote diversity.

In the April 28 order, The FCC said that it has “been investigating The Walt Disney Company, its American Broadcasting Company, and its subsidiaries for compliance with its obligations as a licensed broadcaster. Specifically, the FCC has been investigating Disney’s ABC stations for possible violations of the Communications Act of 1934 and the FCC’s rules, including the agency’s prohibition on unlawful discrimination. While Disney’s ABC has purported to respond to two FCC Letters of Inquiry (LOIs) as part of this investigation, the FCC has determined that additional actions are appropriate at this time.”

The agency also said that “FCC rules provide that whenever the FCC regards an application for a renewal of a license as essential to the proper conduct of an investigation, the FCC has the authority to call the broadcaster’s licenses in for early renewal. Doing so both allows the FCC to conduct its ongoing investigation and enables the FCC to ensure that the broadcaster has been meeting its public interest obligations more broadly.”

In a statement, ABC told the Guardian that “ABC and its stations have a long record of operating in full compliance with FCC rules and serving their local communities with trusted news, emergency information and public‑interest programming. We are confident that record demonstrates our continued qualifications as licensees under the Communications Act and the first amendment and are prepared to show that through the appropriate legal channels. Our focus remains, as always, on serving viewers in the local communities where our stations operate.”

The regulator said the license renewals would have to be filed by May 28.

In a post on X, Commissioner Anna Gomez, the agency's only Democrat, blasted the order as a "political stunt."

In a statement, Free Press Co-CEO Jessica J. González complained that “Carr will try to dress up this latest attack like a legitimate FCC procedure, but his motivations are clear. He is using his position of power to silence dissent at the president’s beck and call. This extraordinary and unconstitutional attack on the media is nothing more than another favor to the most fragile president in U.S. history. The FCC’s ongoing attack on lawful and important diversity, equity and inclusion programs is immoral. The timing of this move suggests unconstitutional retribution for a joke Donald Trump didn’t like. Either way, this dangerous attack on free speech won’t stand up to any First Amendment test. We’ve seen Carr violate his oath to uphold the Constitution again and again. It’s time for Congress to impeach him."

She also stressed that "for its part, ABC and Disney leadership need to stand strong on behalf of their First Amendment right to air content without government intrusion and censorship. Buckling in advance to pressure by this administration and its obsequious FCC chairman didn’t work for the broadcaster when it suspended Kimmel last year. It would be a grave mistake to buckle in advance again to these kinds of chilling government threats from Trump’s censorship czar.”

TV Tech will be filing more comments and details as they come in.