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Pdf Chairman Carr Welcomes 8th Circuit Decision On Media Ownership

Leo Migdal
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pdf chairman carr welcomes 8th circuit decision on media ownership

On July 23, 2025, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit vacated two aspects of the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC or Commission) regulation restricting the number of television stations that one entity can own in a local market. The court vacated the prohibition on ownership of two of the top four stations in a local market (the Top Four Prohibition) and the FCC’s expansion of the Top Four Prohibition to reach multicast... The Eighth Circuit’s vacatur of the Top Four Prohibition and the Note 11 Amendment is significant for the television industry. Equally important is the Eighth Circuit’s holding that the federal statute directing the FCC to review its media ownership regulations every four years is “deregulatory [in] nature” and cannot be used by the agency... That holding will shape future quadrennial reviews and may help to achieve Congress’s deregulatory purpose in directing the FCC’s periodic reviews.

The decision, Zimmer Radio of Mid-Missouri v. FCC, marks the latest development in a decades-long litigation saga concerning the FCC’s media ownership rules. Below, we discuss the Eighth Circuit’s decision, its practical impacts, and potential FCC action. Section 202(h) of the 1996 Telecom Act requires the FCC to review its media ownership rules every four years to determine whether they are still “necessary in the public interest as the result of... In the Report and Order completing the 2018 Quadrennial Review (released in December 2023), the FCC retained its existing broadcast ownership rules and expanded the Top Four Prohibition by adopting the Note 11 Amendment. The Zimmer Radio Petitioners and Intervenors, including the National Association of Broadcasters representing thousands of television and radio broadcasters, challenged the Order.

Specifically, the Petitioners and Intervenors challenged the FCC’s decision to retain the Local Radio and Television Ownership Rules, as well as several discrete aspects of those rules. NAB, FCC chair Brendan Carr applaud 8th Circuit’s ruling overturning FCC rules that station groups can’t own more than one of the four most-watched TV stations in a market When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. WASHINGTON—In an important development in the battle over broadcast ownership regulations, the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has vacated the Federal Communications Commission’s rules against a station group owning more than one of the top-four TV stations in audience share in a given market.

The St. Louis-based court also vacated an amendment to “Note 11” in the FCC rules that tightened how the top four stations are determined, but declined to undo rules governing radio stations and denied the petition... Under the Telecommunications Act of 1996, the FCC is required to review its broadcast ownership rules every four years and repeal or modify any that are no longer in the public interest. Following a December 2023 FCC order retaining existing regulations as part of its 2018 quadrennial review, the National Association of Broadcasters and a coalition of local broadcasters challenged the order, arguing that the FCC’s... The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit on Wednesday issued a mixed ruling on a report delivered by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) two years ago that affirmed certain ownership restrictions for broadcast radio...

In the decision on Wednesday, the appellate court sided with the FCC in retaining certain radio and TV station ownership limits but vacated parts of the “Local Television Ownership Rule” that limited how many... The rule largely prohibited broadcasters from owning two or more of the “top four” rated TV stations in a market unless they obtained a waiver from the FCC. Congress requires the FCC to review that rule and others regarding broadcast TV and radio ownership every four years — a deadline that the FCC has repeatedly missed over the past decade. The 2023 report was actually linked to the agency’s statutory requirement to evaluate its ownership rules in 2018. The National Association of Broadcasters and a handful of broadcast companies sued the agency to force the report. The FCC approved the report by a 3-2 vote that was cast along party lines.

In approving the report, the FCC defended the rule’s continuation and expanded the methodology for defining what consists of a “top four” station to include low-power stations and multicast streams. On Wednesday, the appellate court said the FCC lacked justification to expand the rule. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit delivered a significant victory to television broadcasters Wednesday, vacating the Federal Communications Commission’s rule prohibiting ownership of more than one top-four-rated station in a market while leaving... The St. Louis-based court found the FCC’s justification for retaining the Top-Four Prohibition “arbitrary and capricious” and “unsupported by the record,” marking a rare judicial rebuke of the agency’s media ownership policies.

The ruling stems from challenges to the FCC’s December 2023 order completing its long-delayed 2018 quadrennial review of broadcast ownership rules. Under the Telecommunications Act of 1996, the FCC must review its broadcast ownership rules every four years to determine whether they remain “necessary in the public interest as the result of competition.” The Commission... The three-judge panel determined that the FCC’s rationale for maintaining the television rule contradicted available evidence. The Commission had argued that top-four combinations would result in excessive market concentration, but the court found this assertion “factually questionable,” noting that record evidence showed combinations between third- and fourth-ranked stations would not... FCC Chairman Brendan Carr opposes the rules, and is expected to roll them back regardless of the outcome. WASHINGTON, March 19, 2025 – The Federal Communications Commission defended its media ownership rules in federal appeals court in Minnesota on Wednesday.

FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, a commissioner at the time, had dissented from the 2023 order being challenged. Broadcast companies have asked the court to strike down FCC rules that prevent mergers among the top four broadcasters in a given market, on the grounds that competition from other industries is fierce enough... “The economics in TV don’t support having more than three independent newsrooms in the vast majority of markets,” Andrew Kilberg, the attorney for the broadcasters, said. “But if they were able to access economies of scale,” he said, “they would have more resources to invest in that.” Despite the new chairman’s opposition to the rules on similar grounds to the broadcasters – Carr wrote in his dissent that the agency “continues to advance the fiction that broadcast radio and broadcast television... A long-awaited federal court ruling on the FCC’s 2018 Quadrennial Review of broadcast media rules has opened the door for potential future challenges to radio ownership restrictions, even as the agency’s current rules remain...

The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a mixed decision Tuesday in a consolidated case brought by Zimmer Radio of Mid-Missouri, Beasley Media Group, the NAB, and other broadcast stakeholders. The petitioners challenged the FCC’s 2023 Order, which upheld longstanding limits on local radio ownership. The court upheld the FCC’s authority to define the audio marketplace, noting that the Commission “acknowledged the rise of non-broadcast audio” but “declined to consider it as meaningful competition,” citing radio’s unique status as... Petitioners had argued that failing to account for digital competition in the radio market analysis violates the Telecommunications Act’s directive to modernize rules “in the public interest as the result of competition.” Although those provisions survived judicial review under the deferential “arbitrary and capricious” standard, the court made clear that the FCC’s justifications remain open to future scrutiny, especially as the 2022 Quadrennial Review remains unresolved.

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