The FCC TV ownership cap repeal passed on a 2-1 vote, according to reporting by Ars Technica and CNN. The Federal Communications Commission eliminated the National Television Ownership Rule, which barred one broadcast-station owner from reaching more than 39% of U.S. television households. Chairman Brendan Carr and Republican Commissioner Olivia Trusty voted for the change; Democratic Commissioner Anna Gomez dissented.
The agency will replace the numerical ceiling with case-by-case review of proposed broadcast mergers under a public-interest standard, Carr said. That gives the FCC discretion to approve or reject individual deals rather than applying a fixed nationwide audience-reach limit.
The immediate policy shift is clear. Whether it survives is another matter. Free Press said it plans to sue, and opponents argue that Congress, not the FCC, must alter the limit.
What did the FCC change in the TV ownership cap repeal?
The former rule measured the share of U.S. TV households that a single company’s broadcast stations could reach. It did not prohibit ownership of every station beyond a raw count; it capped aggregate national audience reach at 39%.
Carr argues that the limit has become outdated while broadcasters compete with streaming platforms that do not face the same restriction. He said greater scale could give station groups the capital and advertising revenue to support local programming and news. The National Association of Broadcasters has likewise argued that broadcaster-only ownership limits are no longer sustainable.
Gomez takes the opposite view. She said removing the cap would benefit large national station owners rather than protect local broadcasting, and described the limit as a safeguard for localism, competition and viewpoint diversity. Those are competing policy predictions, not outcomes established by the vote.
The dispute is about what Congress allowed
Congress directed the FCC to enforce the current 39% cap in 2004, after the agency had raised the threshold from 35% to 45% in 2003, according to Ars Technica. The 2004 law also says the FCC’s authority to repeal or modify media rules during its quadrennial reviews does not apply to rules related to the 39% limit.
Carr’s position is narrower than a claim that the statute does not exist. He argues the FCC may change the cap outside the quadrennial-review process. At the commission meeting, he cited a 2002 D.C. Circuit decision concerning Congress’s earlier instruction to set a 35% cap. Ars Technica noted that ruling preceded the 2004 legislation at the center of the current dispute.
Gomez said Congress deliberately put the limit into statute and only Congress can change it. Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, who helped negotiate the 2004 compromise, has made the same argument. Senate Commerce Committee Chair Ted Cruz has also expressed concern about the agency’s authority, according to CPR News.
What happens next?
A court challenge will test the legal reading that Carr’s FCC has adopted. The agency’s authority is not settled by its vote, and the reporting reviewed here does not include the final FCC order or a primary vote record.
The issue has already surfaced in the proposed Nexstar Media Group acquisition of Tegna. Ars Technica reported that the FCC granted Nexstar a waiver allowing reach above the prior cap, while a federal judge ordered the companies to halt integration during pending antitrust litigation. That case is separate from the rule repeal, but it shows why the reach limit has become a live merger issue rather than an archival footnote.
This story draws on original reporting from Ars Technica.
