D.C. Memo: FCC Lifts 39% Cap But Do TV Stations Squeezed by Big Tech Have a Future?
'I don’t want local broadcast TV to go the way of local newspapers. And yet the risk is real,' FCC Chairman Brendan Carr says
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Policy: TV station owners now have new freedom to merge, but did the opportunity arrive too late to be material? FCC regulators on Aug. 6 voted to eliminate the long‑standing 39% national TV ownership cap, a move Chairman Brendan Carr said was necessary to prevent local broadcasters from suffering the same collapse that devastated local newspapers, a fate partially abetted by his agency’s paralysis decades ago. “I don’t want local broadcast TV to go the way of local newspapers. And yet the risk is real. To be sure, big city stations will be fine – the way big city newspapers are fine today. But that will not be the case everywhere,” Carr said. “We should stop hamstringing this one segment of the broader market with outdated restrictions.” The 39% cap refers to TV households a single TV station group may reach nationally, not to an actual numerical cap on stations owned. The FCC went forward over the objections of Democratic FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez, who, like DIRECTV and some cable operators, insisted only Congress could raise the cap. (More after paywall)
