Broadcasters doubled down on calls for station ownership deregulation in reply comments filed by this week's deadline in the “Delete” docket (see also 2504290038), while public interest groups pushed back and cautioned the FCC not to skip required procedures in a rush to eliminate rules. Nexstar said that if the current ownership rules are retained, they will “doom television broadcasting.”
Broadcasters called for the FCC to “delete” nearly every reporting and filing obligation the agency imposes on them in scores of comments posted in docket 25-133 Monday, but the agency should roll back ownership rules first, NAB said. Multichannel video programming distribution (MVPD) interests and allies repeatedly argued that the highly competitive video distribution marketplace necessitates doing away with rules they claim tip the competitive scales. The docket also received many comments from space interests and the telecom industry (see 2504140037 and 2504140046).
The FCC Media Bureau has approved another TV deal that involves a top-four duopoly, according to an order in Friday’s Daily Digest. The deal involves Marquee Broadcasting’s proposed purchase from Imagicomm of KIEM-TV Eureka, California (NBC), and low-power KVIQ-LD Eureka (CBS). “The evidence in the record demonstrates that splitting up the two top-four network affiliations would likely lead to a reduction in network programming and local news in the Eureka [designated market area], which would not serve the public interest,” the order said. Although the top-four prohibition historically hasn’t applied to LPTV stations, the FCC’s 2018 quadrennial review order extended it to those stations and multicast streams. Oral argument in the broadcaster legal challenge of that order was held in the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last month (see 2503190064). The bureau approved another top-four deal by Gray Media earlier this year (see 2503120066), and media brokers told us they expect to see an increase in such deals being proposed since the agency now seems more open to them.
Comments in Chairman Brendan Carr's “Delete, Delete, Delete” docket (25-133) continue to roll in to the FCC. As of late Friday, the due date, nearly 600 comments have been filed. Also on Friday, USTelecom CEO Jonathan Spalter compared the docket to “spring cleaning.”
LAS VEGAS—FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez on Monday decried “an administration-wide campaign to censor and control” media but said she and FCC Chairman Brendan Carr “work very well” when they collaborate. During a Q&A at NAB Show 2025, Gomez also vowed to continue speaking out if the White House fires her and said she doesn’t blame broadcasters for the industry’s lack of pushback on the FCC action against TV networks. “I understand that all these parties all have to operate in this environment, and sticking your neck out is not the easiest thing to do,” Gomez said. “There’s nothing [the White House] can do to me. They can’t even deport me!”
LAS VEGAS -- Broadcasters are optimistic about ownership deregulation and concerned about tariffs, while NAB is looking to broaden the NAB Show’s appeal, according to speeches and interviews at NAB Show 2025, which kicked off Saturday and runs until Wednesday. The show is set to feature almost no FCC presence compared with previous years, as only Commissioner Anna Gomez planned to attend.
The FCC should use a still-open 2017 proceeding to eliminate the national ownership cap, NAB said in a letter to the agency Wednesday. The rule bars any single TV broadcaster from owning stations that, as a group, reach more than 39% of the total number of U.S. TV households. “This outmoded rule prevents broadcasters -- but not any other video service providers -- from competing for audiences and vital advertising revenues across the county,” NAB said.
The House Commerce Committee's Democratic leaders said Monday that they have launched an investigation into FCC Chairman Brendan Carr’s “attacks on the First Amendment and his weaponization of the independent agency,” including multiple broadcaster probes he has initiated since taking over Jan. 20 (see 2502130060). Meanwhile, House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Richard Hudson of North Carolina and 72 other Republican lawmakers are urging the FCC to “modernize” its “outdated” broadcast ownership rules to remove “undue constraints on broadcasters’ ability to innovate and invest in local content.”
Deregulation of the telecom industry “is key” to making the industry more competitive and reducing the price of service, House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Richard Hudson, R-N.C., told a Free State Foundation conference Tuesday. Hudson said his goals are to also “modernize and streamline rules so that the telecom industry in America can thrive.” BEAD and other federal programs were supposed to help close the digital divide, “but they’re being slow-rolled over onerous requirements and regulations.”
Absent more FCC action on issues such as ownership and facilitating the ATSC 3.0 transition, the broadcast industry is quickly sliding toward a "period of catastrophic decline," FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington said Thursday. "We can't keep on the current trajectory" of stations closing and licenses falling into disuse, he said at a Media Institute event. The trend line on broadcaster bankruptcies is "a little bit like the beginning of a recession."