FCC Rescinds TV Ownership Rule That Limits Mergers

The seal for the Federal Communications Commission in the commission's briefing room during a meeting at the FCC headquarters in Washington on Feb. 18, 2026. Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted on Aug. 6 to rescind a rule limiting a TV station owner’s reach to 39 percent of U.S. households, paving the way for big broadcast mergers.

The tally was 2–1, along party lines. A case-by-case approach will be implemented in lieu of an ownership limit.

The 39 percent cap was established by Congress in 2004. FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said that the law didn’t forbid future agency leaders from reconsidering the limit.

Carr said that undoing the limit is crucial to broadcasters’ financial standing, as they operate in a saturated media marketplace that includes cable and streaming rivals. Carr has defended the rescission as a way to limit the power of national TV programmers over affiliate station owners.

“We should learn from our mistakes with the local newspaper industry, and we should not let the same thing happen to the local broadcast TV industry,” he said.

“Trusted sources of local reporting, broadcast over the public airwaves, are worth protecting and worth fighting for.”

Anna Gomez, the only Democratic commissioner on the FCC, who voted against the move, called the move “unlawful on its face.”

“Eliminating the cap does not free local broadcasters from economic pressure; it just changes who is doing the squeezing. The large station groups positioned to grow even larger under this decision are not local broadcasters; they are national companies that own local stations and increasingly dictate what airs on them,” she said in a statement.

The move is a win for Nexstar Media Group, the largest owner of local television stations in the United States.

Nexstar is looking to acquire rival broadcaster Tegna in a $6.2 billion deal. A federal judge has temporarily blocked the acquisition after eight states filed an antitrust lawsuit. The deal would lead to Nexstar reaching at least 60 percent of U.S. households, more than the now-scrapped 39 percent mark.

“Trump’s FCC Chair is trying to illegally rewrite the rules to make it easier for billionaires to line their own pockets while jacking up costs and controlling what Americans watch,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass) said in a statement.

“After rubber-stamping the Nexstar–Tegna megamerger, this looks like the Trump administration’s latest attempt to roll out the red carpet for more antitrust disasters.”

In February, President Donald Trump expressed support for the Tegna–Nexstar deal.

“We need more competition against THE ENEMY, the Fake News National TV Networks. Letting Good Deals get done like Nexstar–Tegna will help knock out the Fake News because there will be more competition, and at a higher and more sophisticated level,” Trump wrote on social media.

“Those that are opposed don’t fully understand how good the concept of this Deal is for them, but they will in the future. GET THAT DEAL DONE!”