Broadcasters are poised to execute a rush of mergers and acquisitions if the FCC relaxes ownership rules, but uncertainty about markets, the direction regulators may take and the future of broadcast networks could influence deal-making, broadcast brokers said in interviews this week. The agency's failure to relax ownership rules could spur a wave of bankruptcies, they said. “The industry is crying out for some relief, and it really deserves some relief, because we can't compete with the giant companies that we're forced to compete with now,” Media Services Group co-founder George Reed said. Tideline Partners Managing Partner Gregory Guy said “2025 is the most fundamentally important year for broadcasters in decades.”
Sen. Jerry Moran of Kansas and 21 other Republican senators are urging the FCC to “modernize [its] broadcast ownership rules to enable broadcasters to compete with today's media giants.” Broadcasters doubled down in late April on calls for station ownership deregulation as part of the FCC’s “Delete” docket (see 2504290054).
In Q1 earnings calls this week, TV broadcast executives emphasized their expectations of ownership deregulation, hinted at station deals and discussed a recent proposal by FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington to cap network affiliation fees (see 2505020066). Nexstar CEO Perry Sook said on his company’s call that Simington’s proposal for a 30% cap on fees would likely find “very little traction” in Washington. On Capitol Hill, “there is very little interest in getting involved in the commerce between stations and networks.”
The Consumer Technology Association wants House and Senate Commerce committee leadership to oppose NAB’s petition to the FCC on the ATSC 3.0 transition, CTA CEO Gary Shapiro said in a letter to legislators Tuesday. The letter was sent to Senate Commerce Chairman Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and ranking member Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and House Chairman Brett Guthrie, R-Ky., and ranking member Frank Pallone, D-N.J. Comments on the NAB petition were due Wednesday in docket 16-142.
What will come out of the FCC’s “Delete” proceeding is hard to say at this point, since it builds on other FCC efforts to cut regulations, experts said during a webinar Wednesday by the Center for Business and Public Policy at Georgetown University. The FCC has logged more than 1,100 comments so far in docket 25-133, with replies due this week (see 2504290054 and 2504290038).
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!”