FCC to Vote August 6 on Ending National TV Station Ownership Caps

The Federal Communications Commission plans to eliminate national caps on television station ownership. The agency is scheduled to vote on the change August 6, replacing the limits with a case-by-case review process for proposed deals. FCC Chairman Brendan Carr described the overhaul in a Breitbart News op-ed.

He said repealing the national cap would give local broadcasters relief from the leverage of national programmers and allow them to attract capital and advertising revenue for community-focused programming. Carr noted that the FCC had maintained a similar ownership restriction on local newspapers for more than 40 years until 2017.

He stated that local newspapers closed by the dozen during that period, leaving many readers with fewer options.

The chairman also said many local broadcast TV stations are becoming outlets for programming produced elsewhere. Carr wrote that the current rules have left stations turning into little more than mouthpieces for content from New York and Hollywood. The August 6 vote would mark the first formal step toward the new approach.