Federal Communications Commission repeals 39 percent national television ownership cap

The Federal Communications Commission has repealed the national television multiple ownership rule, the 39 percent ceiling on national audience reach that has constrained commercial broadcasters for more than two decades. The Report and Order in MB Docket No. 17-318, FCC 26-53, adopted on August 6, 2026 and released on October 1, 2026, was published in the Federal Register of November 12, 2026 as document 2026-23040. The repeal of 47 CFR 73.3555(e) takes effect on January 11, 2027, and hands the agency a case-by-case public interest test in place of a fixed numerical bar.

The rule, as it stood, barred any commercial television licensee from holding a cognizable interest in stations whose aggregate national audience reach exceeded 39 percent of U.S. television households, or up to 78 percent when the 50 percent UHF discount was applied to stations in their Nielsen Designated Market Areas. The Federal Communications Commission concluded that the cap “is no longer necessary to promote competition, viewpoint diversity, and localism,” and that “a bright line rule is no longer necessary to serve the public interest because we can review cases on an individual basis.”

What replaces the cap

Under the Order, transactions that the cap would have blocked are no longer automatically presumed contrary to the public interest; they pass to the agency’s regular review of applications for the transfer and assignment of television licenses, consistent with the local television multiple ownership rule. The Commission writes that “the rule’s repeal will not lead to automatic approval of transactions currently barred under the national cap,” and that acquisitions below the old threshold remain subject to the same public interest scrutiny as before.

Agency guidance sets out the factors it says will shape that review:

• whether a deal would increase investment in local news and locally oriented programming;
• whether it would improve the applicant’s ability to deploy technologies such as ATSC 3.0;
• the transaction-specific effect on retransmission consent negotiations, which the Commission says can be addressed in the review of a specific deal or in a separate rulemaking;
• the practical experience of viewers in markets the acquirer has previously entered.

From three stations to 39 percent

The Order traces a decades-long retreat from national limits, from the agency’s earliest prohibition on owning more than three television stations, to seven stations in 1954, twelve in 1984, and the 25 percent audience reach limit that accompanied the 50 percent UHF discount. Congress directed an increase to 35 percent in the 1996 Act, and the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2004 set the ceiling at 39 percent; the Commission opened MB Docket No. 17-318 in 2017 and refreshed the record through a Media Bureau public notice on June 18, 2025, with comments due August 4, 2025 and replies on August 22, 2025.

The agency cites a shrinking broadcast marketplace: a Nielsen study showing streaming viewership surpassing broadcast and cable combined, a 72.1 percent decline since 2004 in ratings for the top-rated scripted broadcast program, and a fall in the number of distinct station groups from 140 to 62 between November 2011 and November 2023 even as local news hours rose 49.7 percent. It also points to the recent Nexstar-TEGNA transaction, approved through a waiver, as evidence that the waiver route is less efficient than case-by-case review.

Broadcasters, MVPDs and a divided record

Broadcasters, including Nexstar, Sinclair, Scripps, Gray and TEGNA, urged full elimination of the rule, arguing it is “an obsolete and artificial constraint” and that scale gives affiliates leverage against networks in affiliation negotiations. Public interest organizations and multichannel video programming distributors, including DIRECTV, opposed repeal, questioning the agency’s statutory authority and warning of higher retransmission consent fees and larger subscriber bills.

The Commission rejected those arguments, invoking Fox Television Stations, Inc. v. FCC for the proposition that a congressionally specified percentage is only “the starting point” for further change, and noting that no petition for review of the UHF discount survived. Under the Congressional Review Act, the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs found the rule major, and the agency will send the Order and its Final Regulatory Flexibility Analysis to Congress, the Government Accountability Office and the Chief Counsel for Advocacy of the Small Business Administration. The text was signed by Marlene Dortch, Secretary of the Federal Communications Commission, and the Federal Register summary by Thomas Horan, Chief of Staff of the Media Bureau.

Deadlines ahead

If no petitions for reconsideration or petitions for judicial review are timely filed, MB Docket No. 17-318 will be terminated and its docket closed. Until January 11, 2027, the 39 percent cap and the UHF discount remain in force, and the Order states that it contains no new information collection requirements under the Paperwork Reduction Act.

For station owners and network affiliates, the change removes the single numerical limit that has governed national expansion since 2004, converting every deal above 39 percent from a near-certain denial into a discretionary review — a shift that could accelerate consolidation among mid-sized station groups and alter the balance of bargaining power between affiliates and the national networks.

Source: Federal Register, Vol. 91, No. 217, November 12, 2026, Rules and Regulations, p. 72799 (official reference: 2026-23040; MB Docket No. 17-318; FCC 26-53).