Federal Communications Commission scraps limit on broadcast TV ownership

BREAKING NEWSAug. 6, 2026, 3:27 PM UTCMediaMediaFederal Communications Commission scraps limit on broadcast TV ownershipThe move sets the stage for more corporate consolidation in the media industry.Listen to this article with a free profile00:0000:00FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, center, during an open commission meeting at the FCC headquarters in February.Al Drago / Getty ImagesShareAdd NBC News to GoogleBy Daniel ArkinThe Federal Communications Commission, the government agency that regulates the broadcast airwaves, voted Thursday to eliminate a cap on the share of U.S. television households a single company can reach, a major move that could pave the way for more corporate consolidation in the media industry.In a 2-1 vote, the FCC repealed a 22-year-old rule holding that a company cannot own stations that reach more than a combined 39% of the U.S. television audience. The ownership limit will be replaced by a case-by-case approach.The decision to remove the cap had been widely expected. FCC Chairman Brendan Carr last month wrote an op-ed for the conservative news website Breitbart calling the ownership limit an “outdated” policy that blocked local broadcasters from “gaining the same scale that their competitors are free to enjoy.”“The cap no longer constrains the power of national programmers. Instead, it prevents local broadcasters from competing on a level playing field,” said Carr, a Republican who was appointed head of the FCC at the start of President Donald Trump’s second term.The 39% cap has been in place since 2004, when Congress boosted a previous 35% limit set in the 1990s. The rule remained unaltered for more than two decades partly because it is codified in federal law. Carr has contended that the FCC nonetheless has statutory authority to scrap the rule — a position that is likely to face legal pushback.Anna M. Gomez, the lone Democratic commissioner on the FCC, called Thursday’s vote “unlawful on its face.”“Eliminating the cap does not free local broad...