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The FCC votes Thursday on repealing the 39 percent national television ownership cap, and the draft order argues that is no radical departure because the UHF discount already permits 78 percent

Money & World
The Editorial Team ·
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Thirty-nine percent.

That is the share of American television households a single owner may reach, and on Thursday the Federal Communications Commission votes on deleting the rule that says so. The draft Report and Order went out on 16 July, and the Sunshine notice filed on 30 July put it on the agenda for the open meeting at 10:30 a.m. on 6 August. Appendix A of the draft is short. It amends part 73 by removing and reserving paragraph (e) of section 73.3555, which is the national television multiple ownership rule entire.

That paragraph holds two things, and the second is what makes the first misleading. Subparagraph (e)(1) is the 39 percent cap. The same rule also provides that a UHF station is attributed only 50 percent of the television households in its market when compliance is counted, the provision known as the UHF discount, and the draft is candid about what it does to the size of the change now proposed.

"Given that the UHF discount already allows television licensees to reach a potential 78% of the nation's households," paragraph 23 reads, "we believe that repeal will provide needed relief to station owners without constituting a radical departure from the current ceiling."

So the figure in the rule is 39, the figure in practice is 78, and the order's argument for removing the first is the existence of the second.

Nobody is close to either. Counting with the discount, the draft puts the reach of the Big Four networks through their own stations at 24.2 percent for FOX, 21.8 percent for CBS, 20.7 percent for ABC and 19.4 percent for NBC.

Authority is where this gets fought. Congress moved the cap to 39 percent in the Consolidated Appropriations Act, and the draft's answer is that Congress did it by directing the Commission to modify its rules rather than by writing a cap into statute, which the Commission reads as leaving itself free to repeal what it was told to write. Attorneys general from eight states filed against that reading in 2018 comments. The FCC's own document index lists a news release of 15 July headed "Gomez on Unlawful Plan to Eliminate National TV Ownership Cap."

The cap has been bending in practice already. The Media Bureau waived it in March to clear Nexstar's purchase of Tegna, and on 9 July the D.C. Circuit denied motions to stay that order pending appeal. Repeal would retire the waiver route by removing the thing that needs waiving.

The document: Federal Communications Commission, Amendment of Section 73.3555(e) of the Commission's Rules, National Television Multiple Ownership Rule, MB Docket No. 17-318, draft Report and Order circulated for tentative consideration at the 6 August 2026 open meeting, document number FCC-CIRC2608-03, released with an accompanying FCC Fact Sheet dated 16 July 2026. The plain text version was downloaded and read here at HTTP 200 and 282,178 bytes; no fetch-tool summary was relied on, and every figure, quotation and citation below was matched against that text. The document states on its face that it has been circulated for tentative consideration, that the issues and the Commission's ultimate resolutions remain under consideration and subject to change, and that it does not constitute any official action by the Commission. As verified: section 73.3555(e)(1) provides that no licence for a commercial television broadcast station shall be granted, transferred or assigned to any party if the result would be a cognizable interest in television stations with an aggregate national audience reach exceeding thirty-nine (39) percent; the rule further provides that UHF television stations shall be attributed with 50 percent of the television households in their designated market area for the purpose of that calculation, the provision known as the UHF discount. Appendix A, the Final Rule, amends part 73 by removing and reserving paragraph (e) of section 73.3555, leaving the part 73 authority citation at 47 U.S.C. 154, 155, 301, 303, 307, 309, 310, 334, 336 and 339 unchanged. Paragraph 23 states verbatim: 'Therefore, we repeal the national television multiple ownership rule. Given that the UHF discount already allows television licensees to reach a potential 78% of the nation's households, we believe that repeal will provide needed relief to station owners without constituting a radical departure from the current ceiling.' Paragraph 35 states the current reach of the Big Four network owners through their owned stations, with the UHF discount applied, as ABC 20.7 percent, CBS 21.8 percent, FOX 24.2 percent and NBC 19.4 percent, and states that all four remain well below the 39 percent limit. Procedural history as verified in the background section: the Commission adopted a 50 percent UHF discount in 1985 to reflect the weaker reach of analog UHF signals; the 1996 Act at section 202(c)(1)(b) directed the Commission to modify its rules by increasing the national audience reach limitation to 35 percent; the Consolidated Appropriations Act amended that provision by striking '35 percent' and inserting '39 percent' and removed rules relating to the 39 percent national audience reach limitation from the section 202(h) quadrennial review; the Third Circuit held in June 2004 that challenges to the cap and the discount were moot as a result of the CAA provisions while stating it did not intend to foreclose Commission consideration of the discount in a rulemaking outside section 202(h); the Commission eliminated the UHF discount in August 2016, which the draft states effectively reduced the maximum allowable audience reach of an owner of UHF stations from 78 percent to 39 percent, then reinstated it in April 2017; a challenge to the reinstatement was dismissed by the D.C. Circuit in 2018 for lack of standing; both the 39 percent cap and the 50 percent discount remain in effect. On authority, paragraphs 75 to 85 as verified: the draft rests on 47 U.S.C. 154(i) and 303(r), argues that Congress has uniformly reset the cap by directing the Commission to modify its rules rather than by enacting a fixed cap into law, cites the 1996 Act's parallel treatment of the local radio ownership rule and the dual network rule as instances where Congress supplied figures without enacting them as statutory limits, and answers contrary filings from the Attorneys General of Illinois, California, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Virginia in 2018 comments, from ATVA, and from an ex parte submission by Brian T. Fitzpatrick of Vanderbilt Law School taking the position that the 1996 Act took away the Commission's plenary authority over television ownership. On the waiver route, footnote 72 and the surrounding text as verified: Applications for Consent to the Transfer of Control of TEGNA Inc. to Nexstar Media Inc., MB Docket No. 25-331, Memorandum Opinion and Order, DA 26-267 (MB, 19 March 2026), granted a waiver of the national cap after a particularised determination that specific benefits, together with Nexstar's commitments to ameliorate potential harms, warranted it; and the D.C. Circuit has denied motions for a stay of that order pending appeal, Broadband Communications Association of Pennsylvania, et al. v. FCC, No. 26-1062 (D.C. Cir., 9 July 2026). The scheduling detail comes from a second primary document, the Commission's Sunshine Act notice, FR ID 360645, filed for public inspection on 30 July 2026 at 4:15 p.m. Eastern and read in full at https://www.federalregister.gov/public-inspection/2026-15733/meetings-sunshine-act, which lists the meeting for Thursday 6 August 2026 commencing at 10:30 a.m. in the Commission Meeting Room at 45 L Street NE, Washington, and carries the ownership item alongside three others: a direct-to-device unlicensed spectrum NPRM in ET Docket No. 26-169, a Universal Service Fund administration NPRM in WC Docket No. 26-173, and a rural health care item in WC Docket No. 17-310. The characterisation of Commissioner Gomez's position rests on the title of a Commission news release as it appears in the FCC's own document index, dated 15 July 2026 and headed 'Gomez on Unlawful Plan to Eliminate National TV Ownership Cap'; the release itself was not opened and no wording from it is quoted..

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