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Local Abc Cbs Fox And Nbc Broadcasters Push Fcc Cord Cutters News

Leo Migdal
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local abc cbs fox and nbc broadcasters push fcc cord cutters news

Owners of local ABC, CBS, FOX, and NBC television stations are pressing the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to scrap longstanding ownership restrictions, arguing that the rules hinder their ability to compete with tech giants... These platforms, increasingly replacing traditional news sources, have put unprecedented pressure on local broadcasters, who say outdated regulations are tilting the playing field in favor of unregulated digital behemoths. The call for change comes as the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) ramps up its advocacy efforts. In a Wednesday speech at The Media Institute, NAB President and CEO Curtis LeGeyt laid bare the stakes, warning that local radio and television stations—vital lifelines for community news and emergency information—are at risk... “These national and local ownership rules were crafted to promote competition, but in practice they give Big Tech a free pass to dominate,” LeGeyt said, highlighting a stark disparity between the heavily regulated broadcast... Current FCC rules impose a 39 percent national ownership cap, limiting any single television station owner from reaching more than 39 percent of U.S.

households. Locally, the agency enforces a “one-to-a-market” restriction, preventing a single entity from owning more than one top-rated broadcast station in a given market. LeGeyt argues these limits, designed decades ago to prevent monopolies, now handcuff broadcasters in a media landscape transformed by streaming and social media. “Big Tech just wants clicks,” LeGeyt said, contrasting the profit-driven motives of digital platforms with the public service role of local stations. He pointed to their coverage during crises—hurricanes, wildfires, or mass shootings—as evidence of their irreplaceable value. Yet, as audiences flock to YouTube for video content or TikTok for quick updates, local broadcasters are losing ground, unable to consolidate resources or scale up to meet the challenge.

The push to lift ownership caps isn’t new, but it’s gaining urgency. Last year, broadcasters lobbied Congress to force Big Tech into negotiations over content usage, a bid to level the economic playing field. Now, with LeGeyt at the helm of NAB—having been appointed president and CEO in 2022—the focus has shifted to the FCC, where broadcasters see an opportunity under the Trump administration’s deregulatory stance. Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr joins 'MediaBuzz' to weigh in on Skydance's takeover of CBS and Paramount following the cancellation of 'The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.' With trust in legacy media allegedly crumbling, FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr suggested the solution is clear — shift influence away from the national gatekeepers and back into local hands. "Something has to change…" Carr said during "MediaBuzz" on Sunday.

"What the FCC is charged with is making sure that broadcast media – not cable – [operates in the public interest], so I think that's one of the things that we're pushing for is... FCC CHAIRMAN SOUNDS CLARION CALL TO RETURN TO 'UNBIASED, TRUSTWORTHY JOURNALISM' Save this article for later! Login or create a Free Member Profile to bookmark it. The FCC is looking into whether the power dynamic between networks and stations has become so one-sided that affiliates can no longer serve the best interests in their communities. It’s a welcome step to necessary reform.

After years of complaints about the stranglehold contracts ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC impose on their affiliates, it appears the Federal Communications Commission is finally listening. In a first step toward potential relief, the FCC issued a public notice on Nov. 19 titled Empowering Local Broadcast TV Stations to Meet Their Public Interest Obligations: Exploring Market Dynamics Between National Programmers and Their Affiliates. The FCC wants to know if the power dynamic between networks and stations has become so one-sided that television stations are no longer able to make programming decisions in the best interest of their... That question makes the five-page document explosive because it has the potential to radically change the balance of power between networks and their affiliates. Network-affiliate relationships have never been easy, but in recent years so much power has moved to the networks that key contract terms such as program payments and local programming preemptions appear to now be...

President's comments come amid support for eliminating or lifting 39% limit by FCC chairman, Nexstar/Tegna and NAB President Donald Trump weighed in on the FCC‘s potential move to raise or eliminate the current 39% cap on local TV station owners — saying he opposes it if the result would be an... But proposals for the FCC to remove the cap would not have any effect on the reach of national broadcast news networks, which today are available in virtually all U.S. TV households. Trump’s remarks stand in contrast to the position of FCC chairman Brendan Carr, who was appointed by Trump. Carr has been a vocal advocate for abolishing the FCC’s decades-old rule limiting TV station groups from owning outlets that reach more than 39% of U.S.

households. The National Association of Broadcasters also supports eliminating the cap. Trump signaled he would oppose the move if it gave broader reach to “radical left” news networks. “If [lifting the FCC’s 39% ownership cap] would also allow the Radical Left Networks to ‘enlarge,’ I would not be happy. ABC & NBC, in particular, are a disaster – A VIRTUAL ARM OF THE DEMOCRAT PARTY,” Trump wrote Sunday on his Truth Social account. “They should be viewed as an illegal campaign to the Radical Left.

NO EXPANSION OF THE FAKE NEWS NETWORKS. If anything, make them SMALLER! President DJT.” With the Federal Communications Commission poised to revisit long-standing ownership rules governing local broadcast television, a new wave of M&A speculation is once again rippling across the industry. If the FCC loosens or eliminates the national ownership cap or further erodes the “duopoly” rules in local markets, expect a flurry of consolidation. But lost in this speculation is a more nuanced — and more important — truth: not all local stations are created equal, and the paths ahead for network-owned stations and independently owned affiliates couldn’t...

At a glance, both network-owned-and-operated stations (O&Os) and independently owned network affiliates perform the same basic function — they carry the same primetime content, the same national newscasts, and they fight for the same... But the underlying business models and strategic outlooks of these two types of stations are increasingly distinct. The coming wave of media consolidation will only deepen that divide. The Power (And Limits) Of The Network O&O Model O&O stations — those owned outright by the networks themselves (e.g., ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox) — are typically concentrated in the largest U.S. markets.

These stations are deeply integrated into the operations of their parent companies and serve as crucial distribution points for national advertising, political spending, and digital experimentation. NBCUniversal, for instance, uses its owned stations to beta-test streaming integrations and promote Peacock. The networks’ digital pivot is increasingly built around the control they have over these O&Os. O&Os also benefit from scale: they tend to be better staffed, more technologically advanced, and more nimble in adopting cross-platform advertising solutions. These stations are positioned to remain central to their parent companies' evolving distribution and monetization strategies — whether through ATSC 3.0 datacasting, live-streaming through apps, or integrated ad-tech stacks. In a striking move that could reshape the landscape of American television, the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) that represents ABC, CBS, FOX, & NBC station owners has submitted a forceful letter to the...

The NAB argues that these decades-old restrictions, which limit any single entity from owning local commercial TV stations reaching more than 39 percent of U.S. households, are outdated and stifle broadcasters’ ability to compete in a rapidly evolving media market dominated by tech giants and streaming platforms. “For more than two decades, the national TV rule has prohibited any entity from owning local commercial TV stations reaching, in the aggregate, more than 39 percent of the total number of TV households... “This outmoded rule prevents broadcasters – but not any other video service providers – from competing for audiences and vital advertising revenues across the country and harms the public’s free, over-the-air (OTA) television service. The time to eliminate this harmful restriction is now.” The filing marks a significant escalation from the NAB’s previous positions, which sought only to liberalize or modernize the rules rather than abolish them entirely. The NAB’s argument hinges on the dramatic transformation of the media landscape since the ownership cap was last adjusted in 2004.

The rise of streaming services like Netflix and Hulu, social media platforms, and digital advertising juggernauts like Google and Facebook has fundamentally altered how audiences consume content and how advertisers allocate their budgets. “With Google and Facebook gobbling up local advertising revenues and stations competing with unconstrained streaming platforms for viewers’ time and attention, the FCC must end this limitation and allow broadcasters to better serve the... The NAB contends that these “continued marketplace trends over the past seven years” render any artificial limits on TV station groups’ audience reach unjustifiable. The filing also reflects a strategic optimism about the current political climate. With FCC Chair Brendan Carr, appointed during the Trump administration, at the helm, the NAB appears hopeful that the agency will be more receptive to dismantling the ownership caps. The letter references a 2017 effort under Carr’s watch, when the FCC sought public comment on modifying or eliminating the national audience reach limit.

At the time, Carr noted that broadcasters “now compete for eyeballs with YouTube stars, social media platforms, and streaming services—not to mention traditional cable and satellite offerings.” Although that initiative stalled, the NAB sees... In 2017, the NAB had taken a more cautious stance, advocating for either maintaining the 39 percent cap with a revised calculation or raising it to 78 percent if certain discounts were eliminated. Today’s filing, however, pulls no punches. Supported unanimously by the NAB’s Television Board—including major players like Nexstar, Sinclair, and Univision—the organization argues that the national TV rule “in any form does not promote, but instead harms, competition, diversity, and localism.”... FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr proposes shifting media influence from national networks like ABC, CBS, and NBC back to local broadcasters amid declining trust in legacy media. The World Cup draw featured Gianni Infantino, Donald Trump and other host-nation leaders as FIFA…

President Donald Trump and Tom Brady were among the sports and political figures who helped… ICE arrested a Somali illegal immigrant convicted of fraud and connected to several high-profile Minnesota… President Donald Trump lashed out at NBC and ABC over the weekend, calling the broadcasters “two of the worst and most biased networks in history” and suggesting their local television stations should lose their... In a post on his Truth Social platform on Sunday, Trump complained that the two networks “give me 97 percent bad stories,” despite his “very high popularity” and his perceived achievements during the first... “They are simply an arm of the Democrat Party and should, according to many, have their licenses revoked by the FCC,” Trump wrote. “I would be totally in favor of that because they are so biased and untruthful, an actual threat to our democracy.”

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) licenses local radio and television stations that use public broadcast frequencies to reach viewers and listeners. The agency does not license or regulate broadcast networks, but the parent companies of the five biggest TV networks — ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC and the CW Network — all own local TV stations. The Walt Disney Company, which owns ABC, currently operates eight licensed TV stations, while Comcast’s NBC Universal owns around four dozen stations that broadcast shows from NBC and Telemundo. The count does not include repeater or translator stations that redistribute the signals of a full-power broadcast outlet; in nearly all cases, repeaters and translators must also be licensed by the FCC.

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