FCC Head Carr Moves To Reshape TV Ownership Rules, Save Local Broadcasting From Being ‘Mouthpieces’

The Federal Communications Commission is preparing to scrap longstanding national limits on television station ownership – a regulatory overhaul that Chairman Brendan Carr says will give local outlets critical breathing room to compete and invest in community journalism – instead of being ‘Hollywood mouthpieces.’

The agency is scheduled to vote on August 6 to eliminate the ownership caps in favor of a flexible, case-by-case approach for reviewing deals. Carr detailed the plan in a Breitbart News op-ed, arguing the change will help local broadcasters counter the growing influence of national programmers.

“Repealing the national cap will provide essential relief for local broadcasters by restoring a healthy counterbalance to the growing leverage of national programmers. Increased scale will enable broadcasters to attract the capital and advertising revenue needed to sustain and produce trusted and community-focused news and programming,” Carr wrote.

Carr warned that inaction would risk repeating mistakes seen in another corner of local media.

“If the FCC does not act, we do not need to imagine the bleak media future ahead. Just look at local newspapers. Much like the national cap, the FCC maintained an outdated rule for more than 40 years that limited investment in local newspapers,” the Trump administration official continued.

“The FCC kept that rule in place until 2017, long after the economics of local journalism had shifted. Meanwhile, local newspapers shut down by the dozen, and many Americans are now left to choose from a small number of national papers. We can’t let local broadcast TV follow the same path,” he added.

Carr also highlighted the growing challenges for local stations competing against national media conglomerates.

“Many local broadcast TV stations are getting hollowed out as a result and turning into little more than mouthpieces for programming produced in New York and Hollywood. That is not what Congress or the FCC intended,” Carr wrote.

Carr framed the stakes as a straightforward choice about the character of American news, arguing the country would be better served by “a little less Hollywood and a little more local reporting.”