FCC Sets August 6 Vote to Erase the 39% TV Ownership Cap

The Federal Communications Commission will vote August 6 on erasing the rule that stops one company from owning TV stations reaching more than 39 percent of American households. Chairman Brendan Carr announced the date in a Wednesday op-ed for Breitbart, proposing to swap the blanket ownership limit for case-by-case reviews of individual deals.

The change would clear runway for Nexstar and Sinclair, the country’s two biggest station owners, to grow well past that ceiling. Pay-TV distributors, smaller broadcasters and the FCC’s lone Democratic commissioner warn the bill will land on local newsrooms and subscriber bills instead.

The 39 Percent Wall Comes Down

Under the current rule, a company can own as many television stations as it likes, as long as the group’s combined audience reach does not top 39 percent of US TV households, according to the commission’s consumer guide to its ownership limits. Stations broadcasting on UHF channels count for only half their market’s households under a decades-old discount written for the antenna era.

Carr wants to scrap that ceiling and replace it with individual reviews. The commission says it will still screen deals individually rather than approve them automatically. Transactions that fail the public interest test will be denied, the FCC said in a statement, while ones that clear that bar could still win Commission approval.

Carr argues streaming and social media have already erased the advantage the cap was designed to protect. He wrote that national programmers can now reach “100 percent of the country” through their own streaming apps or deals with nationwide virtual cable services, so holding broadcasters to 39 percent only ties one hand behind their back.

Nexstar’s Frozen $6.2 Billion Deal Explains the Timing

Timing matters here. Nexstar Media Group agreed last August to buy rival station owner Tegna for $6.2 billion, a deal that would push its reach to roughly 80 percent of US TV households and give it 259 stations nationwide.

The FCC’s Media Bureau approved the sale on March 19, waiving the 39 percent cap without a vote by the full commission, a decision that drew criticism from Republicans and Democrats alike. Eight state attorneys general and satellite provider DirecTV sued to block it, and a federal judge froze the integration in April while the case plays out. The approval order credited the deal with expanding local news investment across the merged stations.

Nexstar closed the purchase anyway, then had to keep Tegna’s stations operating separately under the court’s order. A repeal of the national cap would remove the legal cloud hanging over the very waiver that made the deal possible in the first place.

Nexstar spokesman Gary Weitman called the review “a welcome and long-overdue step toward bringing broadcast regulation into the modern media marketplace.” The company will report second-quarter earnings on August 6, the same day commissioners vote on the biggest regulatory question its industry has faced in decades.

Who Gains Scale, and Who Pays for It

Supporters and critics agree on one thing: this vote picks winners. The National Association of Broadcasters, the industry’s top trade group, has pushed for repeal for years. Its president and chief executive, Curtis LeGeyt, said the current rules are “out of step with today’s media marketplace.”

Sinclair, one of the largest station groups in the country, backed the plan within hours of Carr’s announcement. Chief executive Chris Ripley called it “common sense” and said the company commends Carr “for his continued leadership in looking at ways to preserve local news.”

DirecTV’s chief legal officer, Michael Hartman, said consolidation raises consumer costs without improving journalism. “There is simply no evidence that greater national consolidation improves the quality of local programming or journalism,” he said in a statement.

The American Television Alliance, a coalition representing cable and satellite distributors, made a similar case through spokesman Hunter Wilson. “Congress set the 39 percent cap and told the FCC it could not change it,” he said by email.

The lineup against repeal spans an unusual mix of interests:

• Eight state attorneys general – suing to block the Nexstar-Tegna merger on antitrust grounds
• DirecTV – fighting the deal in court and warning of higher subscriber fees
• Newsmax – opposing the change because a bigger Nexstar would strengthen rival outlet NewsNation
• Free Press – a nonpartisan nonprofit arguing only Congress can lift a cap it wrote into law

FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez has been the sharpest internal critic. In a Wednesday statement, she argued the move hands away public property.

A free and diverse media landscape depends on real limits on how much of the public airwaves any one company can control, and this FCC is now poised to allow local broadcasters to sell those airwaves off to the highest bidder.

Gomez is the FCC’s only Democrat. She and Republican colleague Olivia Trusty round out a three-member commission with two vacant seats, and Carr needs only Trusty’s vote to pass the repeal.

President Trump has weighed in too. He opposed the Nexstar-Tegna tie-up when it was first announced, then reversed course by February and pushed the FCC to approve it, writing on social media, “GET THAT DEAL DONE!” Trump has separately pressured Carr to review broadcast licenses held by Comcast’s NBC stations and Disney’s ABC stations.

How the Ownership Cap Climbed to 39 Percent

The cap did not start at 39 percent, and it did not start as a percentage at all. The FCC’s limit on station ownership has crept upward for eight decades, almost always toward allowing more consolidation, according to a Congressional Research Service review of the agency’s ownership rules.

1. 1941: The FCC imposes its first limits on how many television stations a single company may own.
2. 1984: The station-based limit rises to 12, and regulators begin shifting toward a nationwide audience-reach model instead.
3. 1996: The Telecommunications Act establishes the national ownership cap tied to audience reach.
4. 2002: The FCC votes to raise the cap to 45 percent, triggering bipartisan pushback in Congress.
5. 2004: The Consolidated Appropriations Act settles the fight at 39 percent, where the cap has sat for more than two decades.
6. 2026: Carr schedules an August 6 vote to erase the cap and replace it with case-by-case reviews.

Carr draws his own parallel, comparing the TV cap to a rule that once barred companies from owning both a newspaper and a broadcast station in the same city. The FCC scrapped that cross-ownership ban in 2017 after holding it in place for more than 40 years. Carr has cited an estimate from a New York Times editor that 3,500 newspapers have closed since and 80 percent of local journalism jobs have disappeared.

Only about 20 percent of US households still watch over an antenna, down from 32 percent in 2020, according to Horowitz Research. That decline undercuts the UHF discount’s original logic, since the formula assumed weaker signal reach that barely matters now that most viewers get their signal through cable, satellite or streaming.

Can the FCC Really Scrap a Cap Congress Set?

Legally, that is the open question. Congress wrote the 39 percent cap into the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2004 and told the FCC to modify it, not eliminate it. Carr’s FCC argues its authority to change ownership limits was never withdrawn, while opponents say only lawmakers can remove a limit lawmakers created.

“Congress has never withdrawn our authority under the Communications Act to regulate or change ownership limits,” the agency said in defense of the vote.

Critics read the word differently. Free Press’s Matt Wood said flatly that “Brendan Carr cannot undo the limit that Congress set just because he feels like it.” Gomez has made the same argument, and the American Television Alliance’s own legal analysis reaches the same conclusion.

It would not be the first time a state has clashed with this FCC over deregulation. California regulators separately accused AT&T of misleading the agency over its copper landline retirement plans, part of a broader pattern of state pushback against this commission’s deregulatory agenda this year.

Commissioners Vote, Then the Lawsuits Start

The outcome of the August 6 vote is not really in doubt. Republicans hold a 2-1 majority with two seats vacant, and Carr needs only Trusty’s support to pass the repeal.

What happens after is far less settled. Free Press, the American Television Alliance and the states already suing over the Tegna deal have all signaled further legal challenges. Voters could flip control of Congress in November’s midterms well before any court rules, adding one more variable to a fight that is only beginning.

The commission posted its draft order publicly on July 16, giving both sides three weeks to sharpen their arguments before commissioners cast their votes.

Frequently Asked Questions

What Exactly Does the 39 Percent Cap Limit?

The rule, spelled out in federal broadcast ownership regulations, blocks any single company from holding TV licenses that collectively reach more than 39 percent of US television households. It caps audience reach, not the number of stations a company can own, and UHF stations count for only half their local households under the antenna-era discount formula.

Why Is the Nexstar-Tegna Merger Stuck in Court?

A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction in April after eight state attorneys general and DirecTV sued, arguing the deal reduces competition in dozens of overlapping markets. Nexstar has since asked the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to narrow that order, arguing in a court filing that the alleged harm applies to only 31 specific markets, not the whole country.

Would Cable and Satellite Bills Go Up?

Distributors think so. Broadcasters charge cable and satellite companies retransmission fees for the right to carry local channels, and those fees typically rise when a station group gains more leverage through bigger scale. The American Television Alliance says carriage costs have already climbed as consolidation increased and expects a repeal to speed that up.

Have Station Owners Already Flexed This Kind of Power?

Yes. Last September, Nexstar and Sinclair both preempted episodes of the ABC program Jimmy Kimmel Live after the host made remarks about the killing of activist Charlie Kirk. Disney’s network pulled the show for several days before bringing Kimmel back, an example critics cite when arguing bigger station groups can already pressure national programmers without any change to ownership rules.

Could Congress or the Courts Still Block This?

Possibly, though not quickly. Opponents argue Congress authorized the FCC only to modify the cap, not eliminate it, and that dispute will likely take years to resolve in federal court. Control of Congress could also change in the November midterms, giving lawmakers a chance to intervene directly before any ruling comes down.