A new poll commissioned by the National Hispanic Media Coalition (NHMC) and Defend the Press Campaign found that large majorities of likely voters in the upcoming mid-term elections opposed “large national broadcasters buying up or merging with local TV stations.”
Overall, 72% of the respondents opposed the idea, including 75% of Democrats and 70% of Republicans. Only 7% were in favor of the acquisitions and 21% were not sure.
“The bottom line is that Americans across the political spectrum don’t want local TV station consolidation,” said Brenda Victoria Castillo, president & CEO, NHMC, which is opposed to the FCC loosening or lifting current ownership caps on station groups. “They expect it to drive up their prices and give billionaires more power over what they see and hear, not to mention degrading the quality of coverage in their communities.”
The survey also found that 81% said they preferred local TV stations to be locally owned as opposed to being owned by “large national broadcast corporations.” Only 2% said they preferred local stations to be owned by the national broadcast corporations.
In addition, 80% said they opposed loosening legal restrictions that would allow large corporations to buy up more local stations, with 89% of Democrats and 70% of Republicans opposing changes to the rules.
While local TV stations bill themselves as local media, the survey did not address the fact that most commercial broadcast stations are already owned by large station groups like Nexstar, Sinclair, Tegna, Scripps, Paramount, NBCUniversal, Disney and Fox. The NAB and many station groups have long argued that lifting the ownership caps would help them better compete against big tech companies that dominate the ad business.
The National Hispanic Media Coalition has in the past opposed further consolidation of the local TV station sector and has argued that the FCC should not raise current ownership caps.
The poll also found that large majorities of likely voters (76%) believed that corporate mergers would lead to higher prices for consumers.
The two groups said the survey – conducted by Lake Research Partners via live phones and text-to-online among 1,000 likely 2026 midterm voters nationwide – is among the first to measure public attitudes toward local TV station consolidation in the context of affordability, cost-of-living pressures, and growing attempts by billionaires to seize control of their local news.
The full poll results and the questions that voters were asked can be found here.
