WASHINGTON—The Federal Communications Commission has set dates for filings in the early renewal of licenses for eight ABC-owned stations.
The FCC has set deadlies for comments filed in its MB Docket No. 26-131, with petitions to deny due on June 29, 2026, opposition on July 29 and replies due Aug. 5.
On April 28, the Media Bureau’s Video Divisiion issued an order directing The Walt Disney Company, its American Broadcasting Company, and its subsidiaries to file license renewals for all of their licensed TV stations (ABC Stations).
Disney’s ABC filed renewal applications for its eight television licenses on May 28, along with comments saying the agency “had not demanded early renewal in over five decades. And it has never before demanded simultaneous license renewal applications from a group of stations commonly owned with a network as it has here.”
“The Order is inconsistent with a legitimate exercise of investigative authority and is plainly incompatible with the First Amendment,” the letter said. “Worse, the Order opens the door to an assault on the Station’s license, while the Commission searches for a legal pretext to achieve its desired goal. This effort to suppress speech under the guise of bureaucratic process must not prevail. WABC files this application without waiving any rights, and calls on the Commission to rescind the Order.”
In the deadline notice, the FCC said that broadcast stations generally get eight-year licenses and none of the ABC licenses would typically be due for renewal until 2028 at earliest.
In the Order demanding the early renewals, the agency noted that “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.”
“Specifically, the FCC has been investigating whether Disney’s ABC engaged in prohibited practices by hiring, promoting, compensating, and/or providing workplace opportunities to people based on race, gender, or other protected characteristics in violation of federal nondiscrimination laws,” the FCC said in the June 1 filing setting deadlines for comments. “In the course of conducting that investigation, the FCC determined that calling in Disney’s ABC licenses for early renewal was necessary to the proper conduct of that ongoing investigation.”
The FCC also stressed that “calling the licenses in now for early renewal also provides the FCC the opportunity to determine whether the ABC Stations have been operating in the public interest, as required by their FCC licenses.”
The decision to investigate the stations for possible violations of public interest standards, including the airing of“biased news coverage,” has drawn criticism. Democratic FCC commissioner Anna Gomez, broadcasters, the National Association of Broadcasters, former FCC members and staff and public-interest groups have said the investigation is outside the agency's authority and is an unconstitutional attack on free speech.
The licenses up for renewal are:
- KFSN-TV, Fresno, Calif.
- KABC-TV, Los Angeles
- KGO-TV, San Francisco
- WLS-TV, Chicago
- WABC-TV, New York
- WTVD, Durham, N.C.
- WPVI, Philadelphia
- KTRK-TV, Houston
The FCC document setting filing procedures in this case is available here.
