NAB President and CEO Curtis LeGeyt and Chief Legal Officer Rick Kaplan held their first high-level policy discussion with newly-minted FCC Commissioner Olivia Trusty earlier this week, wasting no time in pressing for long-awaited reform to broadcast ownership rules.
The July 14 meeting, held with Trusty and members of her staff, saw the NAB state its case that broadcasters face a distinct disadvantage under rules designed for a media environment that no longer exists.
In an ex parte filing about the meeting, Kaplan wrote, “These regulatory frameworks were designed for an era that simply no longer exists. Each day that passes without reform further disadvantages broadcasters – and ultimately the American public – in a land of unconstrained non-broadcast media giants.”
While the meeting also touched on the status of the ATSC 3.0 television standard, the NAB made clear that modernizing local radio and television ownership caps remains an urgent priority for the association in its engagement with the Commission.
Broadcasters are expected to continue lobbying the Commission and lawmakers to address ownership restrictions, which have not been meaningfully updated in decades. Under Chairman Brendan Carr’s “Delete, Delete, Delete” deregulation agenda, the FCC is aggressively reviewing broadcast regulations, including radio ownership caps and technical rules, to modernize how AM/FM stations operate.
In the first FCC Open Meeting with a working GOP majority thanks to Trusty, Carr removed legacy cable-era regulations and signaled moves to reconsider both national TV caps and local radio ownership limits, though no specific timeline was attached.
Outside of ownership caps, the NAB has requested more “deletions,” like certain rules around public inspection files, EEO reporting, and hardware-based Emergency Alert System requirements, to reduce costs and empower stations. The commission is expected to vote on further regulatory rollbacks in the months ahead.
