Television’s national ownership cap may soon be gone. The FCC has announced plans to vote on replacing it with case-by-case review, and radio broadcasters watching their own ownership fight are asking the obvious question: if TV goes first, how far behind is AM/FM?
The FCC will vote at its August Meeting on an Order, text still to be released, said to repeal the 39% national television ownership cap, replacing the decades-old bright-line limit with individualized, case-by-case review. Under the new approach, the agency says it will approve deals that serve the public interest and reject those that don’t, rather than applying a blanket audience-reach ceiling to every transaction regardless of merit.
The Commission frames the change as a matter of fairness: while streaming and digital competitors are free to reach 100% of their markets, television broadcasters have been capped at 39% of theirs. The agency says the shift will foster a more competitive media market, strengthen localism, and encourage investment in trusted local news.
It’s the first time the Commission has moved to actually modify the cap since setting it at 39% in 2004, and is likely to pass under Chairman Carr’s 2-1 party majority.
Radio broadcasters have been making a near-identical argument to the FCC for more than a year, through the agency’s separate, ongoing 2022 Quadrennial Review of local radio ownership caps.
The NAB has pushed the Commission to eliminate or loosen the Local Radio Ownership Rule outright, arguing that caps written in 1996, before streaming, podcasts, and Big Tech advertising platforms existed, now hold local stations back rather than protect competition. Broadcasters including Beasley Media Group and a joint coalition of operators led by Connoisseur Media have made the case directly to FCC Chairman Brendan Carr in recent months, and Cumulus Media CEO Mary Berner has said modernized rules would let companies “invest more locally, diversify our offerings, and compete effectively in today’s rapidly evolving audio landscape.”
Not everyone wants radio to follow television’s path. The musicFIRST Coalition and the Future of Music Coalition have spent the past year pressing the FCC to preserve, not loosen, local radio ownership limits. In filings submitted earlier this month, the groups argued that recent industry layoffs undercut the case for more consolidation, contending that additional acquisitions would not restore local programming or reduce commercial loads.
Whether the FCC’s willingness to abandon a bright-line television cap translates into similar movement on radio remains an open question. But for those in the industry who have spent years making the case that its rules deserve the same treatment TV is about to get, the goal line feels both agonizingly close and far away.
