Different video media shouldn’t face uneven regulation, so if broadcast-ownership caps are eliminated, the retransmission consent regime must also be done away with to prevent MVPDs from collapsing, panelists said Thursday at an International Center for Law & Economics (ICLE) event on modernizing video competition policy. The panel was moderated by FCC General Counsel Adam Candeub.
House Commerce Committee ranking member Frank Pallone, D-N.J., warned FCC Chairman Brendan Carr on Monday that he does “not have the authority to alter or eliminate the 39 percent national television ownership cap.” Pallone raised his concerns in a letter to Carr ahead of the Senate Commerce Committee’s planned hearing Tuesday on the ownership cap (see 2602030070).
President Donald Trump endorsed the Nexstar/Tegna deal and called national TV networks “THE ENEMY” in a social media post Saturday, which was quickly seconded by FCC Chairman Brendan Carr. “Letting Good Deals get done like Nexstar-Tegna will help knock out the Fake News because there will be more competition, and at a higher and more sophisticated level,” Trump said on Truth Social.
Center for American Rights President Daniel Suhr and Digital First Project Executive Director Nathan Leamer both condemned Latino advocacy group Mi Familia Vota (MFV) for sponsoring an ad targeting FCC Chairman Brendan Carr and calling for the Nexstar/Tegna deal to be blocked. “The pay-television industry’s newest ally in a fight over media ownership is a virulently anti-Trump, illegal migrant advocacy group,” wrote Suhr in a post for The National Pulse Friday. “This is not who we are as a telecom community,” said Leamer in a post on X. “Time for the source of funding for these lies to come clean and repent.” MFV has so far declined to comment on why it ran an ad focused on the FCC. The group’s policy agenda lists its priorities as Latino voter turnout, civil rights and Latino representation, access to abortion and legal immigration. A search of MFV’s website for past references to FCC issues got no hits. Suhr’s article repeatedly said that MFV is a left-leaning group: “When the White House, Chairman Carr, or Republican members of Congress think about this issue, they can have a good hint where to land by looking at who’s on the other side.” Newsmax CEO Chris Ruddy, a vocal opponent of Nexstar/Tegna who is close to President Donald Trump, has repeatedly argued that conservatives should oppose the deal. “We can’t fix big Tech consolidation by creating massive TV ownership, which, by the way is almost entirely liberal and opposes Republicans,” said Ruddy in November (see 2511240055). That month, President Donald Trump condemned proposals to increase broadcast TV consolidation. “If this would also allow the Radical Left Networks to ‘enlarge,’ I would not be happy,” Trump said then in a Truth Social post (see 2511240055).
A new requirement buried in a robocall order that took effect Wednesday could lead to daily fines for nearly every entity that does business with the FCC, large and small, multiple attorneys told us.
A TV ad running on stations in the Washington, D.C., area this week urges viewers to tell FCC Chairman Brendan Carr to deny the Nexstar/Tegna deal and leave the national TV ownership cap in place. The ad, which ran Tuesday on Sinclair-owned WJLA Washington and reportedly on other stations, said Carr is “taking a hammer to local news and democracy.” Text in the ad urged viewers to tell Carr “No TV Price Hikes” and “No Approval for Nexstar-Tegna.” Though the ad identifies itself as being paid for by Latino advocacy group Mi Familia Vota, a spokesperson for that group told us in an email Wednesday that it isn’t aware of any of its ads running in the Washington area. The spokesperson asked for a link to the ad but didn't respond to further inquiries after one was provided. Sinclair didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Trinity Broadcasting, the U.S.’s largest religious broadcaster, pushed back in an ex parte filing Wednesday on the National Religious Broadcasters’ opposition to eliminating the national TV ownership cap. “Although NRB never commented on the national television ownership cap during the more than eight years this docket has been open, [it] is positioning itself as the voice of Christian broadcasters in filings it has submitted in other proceedings,” Trinity said. NRB didn’t respond to a request for comment.
The Senate Commerce Committee said Tuesday night that a Feb. 10 hearing would examine the FCC’s 39% national TV station audience-reach cap, as expected (see 2601120064). Newsmax CEO Chris Ruddy, a vocal opponent of proposals for the FCC to lift or ease the cap, will testify, as will NAB CEO Curtis LeGeyt, whose group strongly favors lifting the cap. The panel also plans to name “additional witnesses.” The cap issue came up repeatedly during the House and Senate Communications subcommittees’ recent FCC oversight hearings (see 2512170070 and 2601140071).
A survey of 1,000 registered voters nationwide found “broad public support” for eliminating the national TV station ownership cap, said NAB in a news release Monday. The survey, which was commissioned by NAB and conducted by polling firm Fabrizio Ward, showed that “58% of voters say the 39% ownership restriction is unfair, including 33% who say it is very unfair," the release said.
MVPDs, public interest and civil rights groups said in filings posted Wednesday that the FCC shouldn’t grant waivers to green-light Nexstar’s proposed $6.2 billion purchase of Tegna while it has open proceedings on the quadrennial review and national cap. They also argued that allowing the deal would be a novel decision that can’t be approved at the bureau level.