WASHINGTON—In a move that could fundamentally reshape the broadcast industry and usher in a wave of consolidation, the Federal Communications Commission will vote on August 6 on an Order that repeals the FCC’s 39% national television multiple ownership rule.
Chairman Brendan Carr announced the move in a op-ed in Breitbart and the decision was immediately applauded by broadcasters and the NAB who have lobbied for decades to eliminate the rule.
The Commission, however, won’t be voting on an outright appeal of the 39% national television multiple ownership rule. Rather, the FCC will vote to replace the national cap with a granular, case-by-case review.
The agency said that this will allow the FCC to approve deals that promote the public interest while allowing the agency to reject any deals that do not meet that standard. This action will foster a competitive media market, enhance localism, and promote investment in trusted sources of news and information.
In the op-ed, Carr blasted national media and broadcast networks by arguing that the American public had lost trust in their “partisan” news coverage and described the decision to eliminate the ownership rules as a way to reduce their market power.
“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,” Carr said.
Carr also placed the decision in the context of his ongoing attacks on what he sees as "biased" programming because larger local station groups would have more power to preempt network programming.
"Local TV stations today lack the power to preempt or refuse to air national programming that does not fit their communities’ values," he wrote. "National programmers are now charging local TV more and more for the privilege of airing their shows. Local TV stations are struggling to find the resources to produce live, trusted, and local news programming. Many local broadcast TV stations are getting hollowed out as a result and turning into little more than mouthpieces for programming produced in New York and Hollywood. That is not what Congress or the FCC intended."
The FCC's lone Democrat Anna Gomez signaled her intention of voting against the proposed Order in a statement saying it was bad policy and unlawful because the FCC does not have the authority to lift the cap.
“This unlawful effort to hand control of the public airwaves to billionaire buddies of this administration will destroy local newsrooms, silence community reporting, and drive-up costs for the American families who depend on local stations for news and emergency alerts," she said. "A free and diverse media landscape depends on real limits on how much of the public airwaves any one company can control, and this FCC is now poised to allow local broadcasters to sell those airwaves off to the highest bidder. Congress set the 39 percent national ownership cap in federal law, and only Congress has the authority to raise or eliminate it. The Commission cannot waive away that limit simply because these corporate behemoths want to get out from under it.”
Broadcasters, however applauded the proposal.
In response to the announcement, NAB president and CEO Curtis LeGeyt said “NAB applauds Chairman Carr and the FCC for moving forward with consideration of an order to eliminate the national television ownership cap. This 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. Eliminating the broadcast ownership cap will empower local stations, ensuring they can better compete, invest and serve their communities with the most trusted and freely available news and information, premier sports and entertainment.”
A spokesperson for Nexstar also praised the upcoming vote by saying, “The FCC's decision to review the national television ownership cap is a welcome and long-overdue step toward bringing broadcast regulation into the modern media marketplace. These rules were last updated before Netflix streamed a single movie, before the first iPhone, and before Instagram existed, and they continue to single out local broadcasters based on a competitive landscape that disappeared with the VCR. No one would suggest limiting the reach of YouTube, Amazon, or CNN, yet local broadcasters are still forced to compete under rules written for a different century. Modernizing these outdated regulations 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.”
In a statement, Sinclair CEO Chris Ripley said that: “It should not be controversial to suggest that changed facts should lead to changed rules. We commend Chairman Carr for considering action to modernize the FCC’s rules setting the national ownership cap – and for his continued leadership in looking at ways to preserve local news by taking proactive steps to empower local broadcasters. Given the undeniable change and disruption to the media ecosystem, updating these rules to reflect the current landscape is common sense.”
The draft Order was no available when this article was posted on July 15. The FCC said the draft order will be made available on July 16 at https://www.fcc.gov/August2026.
