FCC Moves To Eliminate National Television Audience Reach Cap

On July 16, 2026, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC or Commission) released a draft Report and Order (Draft Order) proposing to repeal the National Television Audience Reach Cap (the National Cap). The National Cap limits entities from owning or controlling broadcast TV stations which, in the aggregate, reach more than 39% of TV audience households in the United States (applying a 50% discount for UHF stations). The Draft Order, if adopted, would subject applications that would have exceeded the deleted cap to the FCC’s standard case-by-case public interest review of individual transactions.

The Commission is scheduled to vote on the Draft Order at its August 6, 2026 Open Meeting.

Background

The FCC’s Draft Order comes after nine years of proceedings analyzing the scope and effects of the National Cap, which has existed in various iterations since 1941 – including the 39% limit, which has been in effect since 2004. On December 14, 2017, the Commission adopted a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking seeking comment on whether to modify, retain, or eliminate the National Cap. Following the comment cycle, the proceeding sat dormant for over seven years until June 18, 2025, when the Commission released a Public Notice soliciting another round of comments to refresh the record in the proceeding.

The Draft Order

The Commission’s Draft Order would repeal the National Cap in favor of transaction-specific review under the FCC’s existing public interest mandate. According to the Draft Order, “a bright line, ex ante limitation, as opposed to a transaction-specific review, is not necessary in today’s media marketplace.” The Draft Order determines that a case-by-case review would enable the agency to consider all factors in a transaction rather than presumptively rejecting transactions that do not satisfy the 39% metric.

The Draft Order notes that the FCC has previously found the National Cap unnecessary to promote either viewpoint diversity or competition on a local market level. Additionally, the Draft Order finds that the National Cap makes no sense in today’s media marketplace, which features a plethora of video programming and advertising options such as online streaming, and numerous so-called “Big Tech” and “Big Media” companies as competitors to broadcasters. The Draft Order further determines that the National Cap is not necessary to promote localism because the cap’s localism-based objective – to protect the balance of power between networks and affiliates – can be analyzed within the context of specific transactions and through other means.

The Draft Order concludes that a case-by-case review approach will enable the Commission to review the merits of all proposed transactions, even those that would have been presumed not to be in the public interest under the National Cap. The Draft Order emphasizes that transaction approval will continue to depend on the FCC’s analysis of the potential benefits or harms raised by a particular transaction. According to the Commission, a case-by-case review aligns with its approach in other spectrum bands and services.

The Draft Order concludes that the National Cap is a rule that the Commission has statutory authority to modify or eliminate. In support of this finding, the Draft Order recounts that the Commission adopted and has repeatedly modified the cap under Sections 154(i) and 303(r) of the Communications Act, which give the agency authority to adopt, modify, or eliminate broadcast ownership rules. The Draft Order determines that the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2004 (CAA), which directed the FCC to modify its rules to set the National Cap at 39%, does not either restrain the FCC’s authority to modify the National Cap or require the agency to keep the National Cap at 39%. The Draft Order determines that this interpretation of the FCC’s statutory authority is the best reading of the Communications Act and the CAA and notes that the Commission has previously taken this position on a bipartisan basis (although not without dissent, which also has been bipartisan).

Commissioner Reaction and Looking Ahead

The fate of the National Cap has been hotly debated, and the reactions of FCC Commissioners to the Draft Order’s release reflect the issue’s divisiveness. In an op-ed published by Breitbart, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr wrote that the National Cap repeal “will provide essential relief for local broadcasters by restoring a healthy counterbalance to the growing leverage of national programmers.” He also noted that greater “scale will enable broadcasters to attract the capital and advertising revenue needed to sustain and produce trusted and community-focused news and programming.”

On the other hand, Commissioner Anna Gomez released a statement challenging the FCC’s authority to repeal the National Cap. Commissioner Gomez called the upcoming Draft Order vote an “unlawful effort” and explained that “Congress set the 39 percent national ownership cap in federal law, and only Congress has the authority to raise or eliminate it.”