The FCC sets a high bar for waiving its foreign-ownership cap for domestic broadcasters, and Paramount Skydance hasn't met it, Free Press told the commission Thursday (docket 26-93). Paramount is seeking the FCC's approval for investment funds controlled by Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates to buy a 49.5% stake for $47 billion to help fund the company's purchase of Warner Bros. Discovery (see 2604270051). In comments in the docket this week, only Free Press raised strong objections. Democratic senators are calling for the FCC to do a "comprehensive" review of the foreign funding (see 2605210067), but pushback from the commission or national security agencies isn't expected (see 2605080047).
Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Maria Cantwell of Washington and five other Democratic senators wrote to FCC Chairman Brendan Carr on Wednesday night seeking a “comprehensive” federal review of Paramount Skydance's use of financing from sovereign wealth funds owned by Middle Eastern countries to pay for its proposed $110 billion purchase of Warner Bros. Discovery (see 2605200082). Paramount is asking the FCC to approve the funds' indirect purchase of a 49.5% stake for $47 billion (see 2604270051). Communications lawyers familiar with foreign investment said they don't expect federal pushback over the matter (see 2605080047).
E.W. Scripps' request for a waiver of the national TV ownership cap to allow it to purchase Inyo and 23 TV stations it previously divested (see 2604170072) should be denied because the FCC lacks the authority to waive the national cap, said DirecTV and several state broadband associations in a joint filing posted Tuesday in docket 26-85. The same group is behind the antitrust challenge against the Nexstar/Tegna deal in federal court in the Eastern District of California.
Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Maria Cantwell of Washington and five other chamber Democrats wrote FCC Chairman Brendan Carr Wednesday night seeking a “comprehensive” federal review of Paramount Skydance's use of financing from sovereign wealth funds owned by Middle Eastern countries to pay for its proposed $110 billion purchase of Warner Bros. Discovery. Paramount is asking the FCC to approve the funds indirectly buying a 49.5% stake for $47 billion (see 2604270051). Communications lawyers familiar with foreign investment don't expect the FCC or national security agencies to push back over the matter (see 2605080047).
Opponents of the Nexstar/Tegna merger pressed the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit this week to force the full FCC to act on appeals of the Media Bureau order approving the deal and to issue another stay barring the companies from combining. A hold-separate order issued by the U.S. District Court for Eastern California has already paused the transaction but is currently under appeal in the 9th Circuit.
The Center for American Rights (CAR) wants the FCC to “take a more active regulatory role” to address what it called an “oligopoly problem” in national broadcast network TV news. “ABC, NBC, and CBS dominate the television national news market,” CAR said (docket 26-78) in response to the FCC's request for comments to inform its biannual State of Competition in the Communications Marketplace report. “There are severely limited viewer options for national news programming among the 18 million households reliant on over-the-air broadcasting.”
The FCC “expects that it will be able to act” on an application for review (AFR) of the Nexstar/Tegna deal “this year,” it said Monday in a filing at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, asking the court to reject calls to compel an agency vote on the matter.
Arguments that the Nexstar/Tegna deal would give the combined company too much power over local news have “the musty smell of 1985, or even 1955,” said Steve Forbes, chairman of Forbes Media, in a column for Fox News published Monday. Local broadcasters compete not just with one another, but also with tech giants, social media platforms and all forms of digital content, Forbes wrote. “That is the marketplace. Not theory. Not nostalgia. Reality.” Rigidly applying legacy broadcast-ownership rules, such as the national TV ownership cap, to the industry today is “like regulating automobiles with horse-and-buggy rules,” Forbes said. He compared the deal’s opponents to the extinct dodo bird and Nexstar/Tegna to JetBlue’s blocked acquisition of the recently bankrupted Spirit Airlines. “The Nexstar-Tegna transaction offers a path toward stronger local stations, more durable newsrooms and a fighting chance for community journalism to endure.”
NAB on Wednesday criticized the FCC Media Bureau’s order requiring Disney TV licenses to undergo early renewal proceedings after President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump each called for the firing of late-night host Jimmy Kimmel. In addition, analysts and academics warned that the agency’s actions could reduce the value of all broadcast stations and authorize similar investigations from a future FCC led by a Democrat.
LAS VEGAS -- The outlook for TV consolidation isn’t clear, and the whole industry is waiting to see the outcome of Nexstar’s legal battle over its Tegna purchase after a federal court issued a preliminary injunction on the deal, said broadcasters, brokers and broadcast attorneys at the NAB Show 2026, which started Saturday. Nexstar said Friday that it would soon file an appeal with the 9th U.S. Court of Appeals.