FCC abolishes national broadcast ownership cap, paving way for media mergers
The Federal Communications Commission voted to eliminate the national ownership cap that restricted broadcasters from owning stations reaching more than a certain percentage of U.S. households. Chair Brendan Carr and Commissioner Olivia Trusty, both Republicans, supported the move. This decision ends decades of limits on broadcast consolidation.
The 2-1 vote replaced the 39% household threshold with a case-by-case public interest review. Chair Brendan Carr argued the old cap hindered broadcasters competing against digital platforms that reach the entire nation without license obligations.
The decision follows Carr's earlier waiver of the cap for the Nexstar-Tegna merger, which a federal judge paused amid a state attorneys general challenge. Critics, including Commissioner Anna Gomez, contend the change undermines local news and that only Congress, which set the limit in 2004, can legally alter it.
The elimination of the cap could accelerate mergers among large broadcasters, potentially reducing local news diversity and raising advertising prices for viewers. Smaller independent stations may face increased pressure to sell. Conversely, larger networks might gain needed scale to compete with streaming giants. The pending legal challenge to the Nexstar-Tegna merger may test the policy's durability, while the FCC's recent actions against specific networks could raise concerns about the neutrality of future case-by-case reviews.