The largest TV station group in the U.S. is suing in an effort to alter current federal rules that limit its ability to grow in local markets. Nexstar Media Group filed the action in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, faulting the FCC for freezing or tightening TV station ownership rules in disregard of controlling law that points to deregulation as competition to broadcasting takes hold. “The [FCC’s] order exceeds the [FCC’s] statutory authority because it tightens media ownership rules in spite of the statute’s clear deregulatory purpose and the lack of basis for such tightening,” Nexstar said in its Feb. 23 petition for review.
Broadcast M&A Prospects Chilly In ’24
The FCC’s recent Top Four Duopoly rule decision, the agency’s kibosh of the Standard General-Tegna deal and private equity’s uncertainty about bellying back up to the bar all point toward a 2024 that will be relatively short on TV station mergers and acquisitions.
The FCC Vs. The News In Your Neighborhood
Holman W. Jenkins Jr.: Local broadcasting might have a future if the agency’s ownership rules would get out of the way.
RTDNA President-CEO Dan Shelley says TV news’ credibility is on the line in this election year as never before, and he has some advice on how stations can recapture viewers’ trust. A full transcript of the conversation is included.
Hey FCC, It’s Not The 1960s Anymore
The FCC has held tight to anachronistic structural regulations, dealing a massive blow to broadcasters in dire need of regulatory relief. Localism will be one of the casualties.
TV station owners just got bopped on the beak by the FCC regarding local TV station ownership limits. Could another bloody nose be on the way? It’s possible. That’s the view of prominent broadcast attorney David Oxenford, a partner at Wilkinson Barker Knauer in Washington. In a Jan. 2 blog, Oxenford said the Democratic-controlled FCC could take a look at the so-called UHF Discount, which is an FCC rule that allows a single TV station owner to serve more than 39% of TV households nationally. The FCC did not take up the UHF Discount or the 39% statutory cap set by Congress during its most recent quadrennial review of its broadcast ownership rules. “With a fifth commissioner now on the FCC, the UHF Discount could again be considered, particularly if there is a proposed acquisition that places the issue before the FCC by relying on the discount to comply with the ownership rules,” Oxenford said.
FCC Gives Broadcasters A Lump Of Coal For The New Year
Entrenched in the past, the commission has held firm — and even tightened — its deeply out-of-date regulations, dealing a deep blow to broadcasters.
Ted Hearn: “Did the FCC just say that Nexstar and Amazon do not compete in the video programming marketplace? Didn’t Amazon Prime announce today that it will begin showing ads on TV shows and movies starting on Jan. 29? Financial pressure on TV station owners isn’t new, but it isn’t going away, either. But that didn’t seem to bother the FCC. The FCC’s new rulebook is long and complex, technical and tedious – which means a full understanding of the new rules won’t surface until the agency reviews proposed transactions or issues enforcement rulings against a TV station that pushed the limits.”
After weeks of intense lobbying, the Federal Communications Commission has reportedly adopted new media ownership rules, and it appears TV station owners have been dealt a setback. The news came in a post on the X microblogging site by a reporter for Communications Daily, an industry newsletter that follows FCC activity closely. “The FCC has approved the 2018 Quad Review order 3-2. I’m told the order still extends top 4 prohibition to LPTV and multicast streams, only change is language highlighting the waiver process,” Monty Tayloe wrote on Friday.
Ahead of next Wednesday’s fast-approaching deadline, broadcasting and pay TV industry representatives are using the limited time left to pitch the FCC on their preferred substance of potentially new media ownership rules. Broadcasters are urging the FCC to loosen some current rules and allow for more TV station ownership consolidation at the local level. Meanwhile, cable and satellite TV companies think current rules have loopholes that need to be closed to reduce the number of signal blackouts and moderate their payments to stations for carriage.
It’s not just TV stations that want deregulation from the FCC. So do radio stations. Facing stiff competition from Amazon, Facebook, and Google for ad dollars, radio broadcasters Connoisseur Media and Mid-West Family Broadcasting are saying the FCC needs “to relax the current local radio ownership rules particularly for companies like theirs, that already provide significant local service, and would increase such service if allowed to own more stations in their markets.”
TV station owners have their fingers crossed as they await a big regulatory decision out of the FCC. Agency action is expected within days based on a court order requiring an FCC decision by Dec. 27. Before the agency is a proposal to tighten a key TV station ownership regulation. A negative outcome for broadcasters could upend established business practices that support their market value. Even if the FCC exempts existing TV station deals otherwise disallowed under the new rules, many broadcasters fear that even an accommodation like that could hurt their ability to exit the business at a healthy price.
The National Association of Broadcasters continues to press for TV station ownership deregulation, saying a federal rule that bars the common ownership of some of the most successful TV stations in a market needs to go. NAB lawyers made their latest appeal for a market-driven ownership approach in a Nov. 30 meeting with an aide to FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel. A federal appeals court has ordered the FCC to finish its TV station ownership review by Dec. 27.
The FCC has 90 days to finish its review of the rules governing how many broadcast stations a company can own, a federal court said in a ruling on Friday (Sept. 29). The agency is required to review the laws every four years to see if they continue to serve the public interest. It kicked off the review in 2019, but a series of legal entanglements delayed the actual start of the process. After further stalling this year, the National Association of Broadcasters filed a petition with the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals in April to get the process moving.
The American Television Alliance says the purchase would give operational control of the Detroit MyNetworkTV affiliate to Nexstar, in violation of federal ownership rules.
A deal for Forum Communications Company to acquire Fox affiliates KVRR Fargo, N.D., and KQDS Duluth, Minn., has come undone. The deal failed to materialize as both Forum Communications and Red River Broadcasting awaited what is called a “Big Four waiver request” from the FCC. The waiver would have allowed Forum to acquire a second “Big Four” network affiliate in the Fargo market.