GoKawiilThe Federal Communications Commission, the government agency that regulates the broadcast airwaves, voted Thursday to eliminate a cap on the share of U.S. television households a single company can reach, a major move that could pave the way for more corporate consolidation in the media industry.
In a 2-1 vote, the FCC repealed a 22-year-old rule holding that a company cannot own stations that reach more than a combined 39% of the U.S. television audience. The ownership limit will be replaced by a case-by-case approach.
The decision to remove the cap had been widely expected. FCC Chairman Brendan Carr last month wrote an op-ed for the conservative news website Breitbart calling the ownership limit an “outdated” policy that blocked local broadcasters from “gaining the same scale that their competitors are free to enjoy.”
“The cap no longer constrains the power of national programmers. Instead, it prevents local broadcasters from competing on a level playing field,” said Carr, a Republican who was appointed head of the FCC at the start of President Donald Trump’s second term.
The 39% cap has been in place since 2004, when Congress boosted a previous 35% limit set in the 1990s. The rule remained unaltered for more than two decades partly because it is codified in federal law.
Carr has contended that the FCC nonetheless has statutory authority to scrap the rule — a position that is likely to face legal pushback. Free Press, a progressive consumer group, said it planned to sue over the FCC’s “unlawful power grab.”
Anna M. Gomez, the lone Democratic commissioner on the FCC, blasted the vote in similar terms, calling it “unlawful on its face.”
“Eliminating the cap does not free local broadcasters from economic pressure, it just changes who is doing the squeezing,” Gomez said in a statement. “The large station groups positioned to grow even larger under this decision are not local broadcasters, they are national companies that own local stations and increasingly dictate what airs on them.”
The vote pitted Gomez against Carr and a third commissioner, Olivia Trusty, a Republican who was also appointed by Trump.
The FCC’s move delivers a win to Nexstar Media Group, the nation’s largest owner of local television stations. Nexstar is seeking to acquire rival broadcaster Tegna in a $6.2 billion deal, though a federal judge put the transaction on hold after eight state attorneys general filed an antitrust lawsuit. The combined entity would reach at least 60% of U.S. households.
... continue reading