On Wednesday, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr announced his plan to repeal Congress’s limit on the national reach of broadcast television conglomerates. Lifting Congress’s cap of 39 percent of the national audience is key to the proposed merger between two massive streaming conglomerates: Nexstar and Tegna.
As explained by the Free Press In comments filed last year in the agency’s lawsuitCarr’s machinations serve the interests of radio lobbyists and media moguls who are allied with the Trump administration and hope to monopolize the broadcast dial-up. But the FCC’s power grab ignores the law in pursuit of Carr’s partisan and self-aggrandizing goals.
In 2025, the FCC requested public comment on changing or repealing the National Broadcast Ownership Rule established by Congress. The rule prohibits any broadcast TV conglomerate from exceeding the 39 percent cap designed to limit the size and national reach of giant broadcast stations — such as Fox Corporation, Nexstar and Sinclair — that already own hundreds of stations across the country.
At the time, the Free Press explained that the agency did not have the authority to change the numerical limit set by Congress in the law. The Free Press filing notes that Carr’s goal is to fulfill the Trump administration’s desire to “use the commission’s licensing authority to exercise full control over the media.”
“Media consolidation and deal approvals are now clearly a means for President Trump to consolidate his dictatorial power, through explicit loyalty tests and pledges to use the public airwaves as a propaganda tool against the American public,” the filing said.
In fact, the FCC in March tried to waive that threshold to approve Nexstar’s acquisition of Tegna Inc. This merger would give Nexstar access to 80% of American households over the country’s radio airwaves. Although the companies were quick to close the deal on the grounds of an unauthorized and illegal assignment to the FCC, federal courts in California halted the deal in light of antitrust proceedings. Lawsuits from state attorneys general and private parties Against this massive radio focus.
Matt WoodFree Press Vice President of Policy and General Counsel said:
“Brendan Carr’s arrogance matches that of his boss Donald Trump as the FCC Chairman bends or breaks every rule to grow his power and help his political allies. But just as the FCC had no authority to waive a statute to Congress to grease the skids of Nexstar’s merger with Tegna, it now has no power to completely obliterate the limit set by Congress.
“It wasn’t just advocacy groups like Free Press that criticized Carr’s hypocrisy and arrogance. Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, who chairs the Senate Commerce Committee that oversees the FCC, held a full hearing in February to investigate the matter. Cruz himself has shamed and embarrassed radio lobbyists for their unreasonable reading of the law. Chris Ruddy, CEO of the conservative news outlet Newsmax, testified at the same hearing about the difficulties other outlets face When they have to compete against bigger and bigger broadcast conglomerates, Ruddy also pointed out that Congress has explicitly set the national cap — and stripped the FCC of the power to change or abandon it.
“Carr claims that FCC chairs in both parties agreed that the agency still has the ability to ignore and override the will of Congress, but his slanders and fabrications do not stand up to scrutiny.
“While broadcasters feign poverty and claim they should be allowed to reach the entire country the way online platforms do, they actually can. Nothing prevents a company like Nexstar from having a national website or cable news channel. The national cap is no particular disadvantage for broadcasters. In fact, broadcasters have a special advantage with their exclusive licenses to use precious national airwaves the way they do.”
“As the Free Press has shown many times, the national cap remains good policy. It promotes competition, localism, and diversity in broadcasting, and incentivizes stations to maintain local newsrooms and local journalism functions rather than replicate national stories and pass them off as local news. But whatever the merits of the law, the point is that Brendan Carr cannot repeal the cap set by Congress just because he wants to.”
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