\n\tThe Federal Communications Commission signaled it will vote on Aug. 6 to repeal the longstanding cap on ownership of TV stations, replacing a limit that keeps owners from controlling stations in more than 39% of markets with a case-by-case review of transactions that might come before regulators.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cToday, national programmers can distribute their programming to 100 percent of the country \u2014 either through their own streaming services or through deals they cut with nationwide \u2018virtual cable companies,\u2019 like YouTube TV. The cap no longer constrains their control over distribution in this respect,\u201d FCC<\/a> Chairman Brendan Carr<\/a> wrote in an op-ed published by Brietbart. \u201cNor does the cap limit other players in today\u2019s media market. Cable channels like MS NOW can reach 100 percent of the country. Social media sites from Bluesky to X can reach 100 percent of the country. Netflix can reach 100 percent too. Same with podcasts and all other forms of digital content.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tA decision by the FCC to eliminate the cap might have immediate consequences. Nexstar<\/a>, one of the largest owners of TV stations in the U.S., has been barred by a federal court<\/a> from completing its recent acquisition of Tegna<\/a>, a smaller TV station owner, on the grounds that the transaction would give Nexstar too much control over local TV properties across the country. Nexstar also owns national outlets like the CW broadcast network and the NewsNation cable-news outlet.<\/p>\n \n\tNexstar is in favor of the move. \u201cThe FCC\u2019s decision to review the national television ownership cap is a welcome and long-overdue step toward bringing broadcast regulation into the modern media marketplace,\u201d the company said in a statement.\u00a0\u201cThese 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.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tA trade group representing TV stations applauded the initiative. The National Association of Broadcasters said it \u201capplauds\u202fChairman\u202fCarr and the FCC\u202ffor\u202fmoving forward with consideration of an order to eliminate the national television ownership cap. This reflects the understanding that decades-old ownership restrictions\u202fthat apply only to broadcasters \u2014 and none of our competitors \u2014 are out of step with\u202ftoday\u2019s media marketplace.\u202fThe move, the organization said, \u201cwill\u202fempower local stations, ensuring they can\u202fbetter compete, invest\u202fand serve their communities with the most\u202ftrusted and freely available news and information, premier sports and entertainment.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThe FCC said a decision to remove the cap did not represent an automatic approval of deals that might come before it in the future. \u201cThere may be transactions that would have exceeded the limits of the 39% national cap that do not promote the public interest and those will be denied,\u201d the regulator said Wednesday. \u201cOn the other hand, there may be transactions that would have exceeded the cap that do promote the public interest and could gain Commission approval.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThere have been signs in recent months of the new power that station owners might gain. In September of last year, both Nexstar and another large owner of TV stations, Sinclair, said they would preempt episodes of the ABC late-night program \u201cJimmy Kimmel Live\u201d after the host made remarks about the killing of conservative activist\u00a0Charlie Kirk<\/a>. The Disney network pulled Kimmel\u2019s show for a handful of days<\/a> to consider the matter before returning him to the air. Kimmel addressed the remarks and the furor around them in his first telecast following the suspension.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Federal Communications Commission signaled it will vote on Aug. 6 to repeal the longstanding cap on ownership…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":764711,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[17105,28,3092,69112,49911],"class_list":["post-764710","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-brendan-carr","tag-business","tag-fcc","tag-nexstar","tag-tegna"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/764710","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=764710"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/764710\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/764711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=764710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=764710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=764710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}