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The move will allow station owners like Nexstar and Sinclair to expand their reach.
The Federal Communications Commission is set to vote on ending the ownership limit for local TV stations.
The FCC announced Wednesday that it will vote to lift the cap, which under the letter of the law prohibits companies from owning local TV stations that reach more than 39 percent of the nation’s population. “Specifically, the FCC will vote on replacing the national cap with a detailed, case-by-case review,” the committee’s announcement said. “This will enable the FCC to approve deals that advance the public interest while allowing the agency to reject any deals that do not meet this standard.”
In an op-ed announcing the vote on the right-wing news site Breitbart, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said lifting the cap would rebalance power between station owners and other big media players, from national networks to streaming companies and social media companies. “The 39 percent cap still applies uniquely to owners of local broadcast TV stations, throwing the market out of balance,” Carr wrote. “Today, the cap doesn’t protect local broadcasters, it prevents them from getting the same spectrum that their competitors freely enjoy.”
Eliminating the ownership cap would be a boon for large station owners including Nexstar — whose merger with Tegna means the company will reach 80 percent of TV households — and Sinclair, which has been in talks to expand by acquiring EW Scripps. Nexstar issued a statement in support of raising the cap following the FCC’s announcement on Wednesday.
Functionally, the cover was fairly flexible. The FCC allowed station owners to own more than one station in the same market under certain conditions and granted a “UHF rebate” that applied only half of the station’s reach toward the maximum if the over-the-air signal was very high frequency (as opposed to VHF or very high frequency). So-called shared services agreements also allow a terminal owner to operate another company’s outlet without technically owning it.
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