The Federal Communications Commission is set to vote on ending the ownership limit on local TV stations.
The FCC announced Wednesday that it will vote on lifting the cap, which by the letter of the law limits companies from owning local TV stations that reach more than 39 percent of the country’s population. “Specifically, the FCC will vote to replace the national cap with a granular, case-by-case review,” the commission’s announcement reads. “This will empower the FCC to approve deals that promote the public interest while allowing the agency to reject any deals that do not meet that standard.”
In an op-ed announcing the vote at the right-wing news site Breitbart, FCC chairman Brendan Carr argued that lifting the cap would rebalance power between station owners and other big media players, ranging from national networks to streamers and social media companies. “The 39 percent cap continues to apply uniquely to the owners of local broadcast TV stations — forcing the market out of balance,” Carr wrote. “Today, the cap is not protecting local broadcasters, it is preventing them from gaining the same scale that their competitors are free to enjoy.”
Eliminating the ownership cap would be a boon to big station owners including Nexstar — whose merger with Tegna means the company will reach 80 percent of TV households — and Sinclair, which has had talks to expand by acquiring E.W. Scripps. Nexstar released a statement in support of lifting the cap following the FCC’s announcement Wednesday.
Functionally, the cap has been somewhat flexible. The FCC has allowed station owners to own more than one station in the same market under certain conditions and gives a “UHF discount” that only applies half of a station’s reach toward the cap if its over-the-air signal is ultra high frequency (as opposed to VHF or very high frequency). So-called shared services agreements also allow a station owner to operate another company’s outlet without technically owning it.
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