The National Broadcast Ownership Cap says a single company cannot own local TV stations that collectively reach more than 39% of U.S. TV households. The aim was to keep any one company, and by extension it's political and cultural viewpoint, from dominating a town or city.
According to the Los Angeles Times, Chairman Brendan Carr says the FCC will vote on Aug. 6 whether or not to do away with the cap. Instead, it will shift to a case-by-case review to determine station mergers and acquisition deals that would exceed the current limit.
Carr’s Office says that this will allow the FCC to “to approve deals that promote the public interest” and reject those that do not, with the goal of fostering “a competitive media market, enhance localism, and promote investment in trusted sources of news and information.”
TV station owners have been lobbying for this because giant tech companies and streaming services have put them at a disadvantage as they experience a loss of viewership and revenue.
Richard Randall, media analyst and talk host, says local issues are very important to communities.
“How much does it cost to rent a house? How much does it cost to buy a house? How much for electricity? How much for water? Is it a safe neighborhood? Those are all things that I think there will be improved coverage on, and I think that's very, very important,” Randall states.
But as for diversifying voices in communities, he says doing away with the cap won't make a big difference.
“I think a lot of people assume that local news is going to be more favorable, more fair, more balanced, and therefore, it's going to be a huge improvement. That's not my experience,” Randall states.
Local reporters, he says, all went to the same journalism schools as the national reporters and came out with the same liberal biases. However, he still says the cap should go as the media landscape has changed so much since the cap was put in place in 2004.
“That much has changed in terms of the internet, in terms of cable news, in terms of getting your information off of Instagram and TikTok and X and all of the others, that it's not even remotely close to what it was when this rule went into effect,” Randall states.
