FCC's repeal of the 39% national TV ownership cap will take effect on January 11

The Federal Communications Commission's repeal of its national TV ownership cap, which bars a company from holding stations that together reach more than 39% of U.S. TV households, will take effect on January 11, 2027. The date was fixed when the order was published in the Federal Register on November 12, 2026. The Commission adopted it on August 6 and released the text on October 1.

From that date, station deals that would have exceeded the limit are no longer ruled out in advance. The FCC says it will review each one against its media ownership goals of localism, competition and viewpoint diversity, and describes the change as the first update to its approach to the rule in more than 20 years.

How the cap worked

The Commission first limited national TV ownership in 1941, according to the order. In a 1996 law, Congress told it to raise the cap from 25% to 35%, and in 2004 an appropriations law directed it to set the figure at 39%. Station groups have also been able to count each UHF station as reaching only half the households in its market, a rule known as the UHF discount. With it, the FCC says, an owner could reach up to 78% of households and still comply.

All four networks are well below the cap, a point the FCC cites in saying it is not concerned that repeal will concentrate station ownership in their hands. It adds that the total number of stations the four own has fallen since its 2002 Biennial Review Order.

The case for repeal, and the objections

The order's main argument is that TV has changed. It says 83% of U.S. adults now watch video through streaming services, and that subscriptions to traditional pay-TV have been falling since 2012, when they reached 101.6 million. Networks no longer depend on local stations to reach viewers in the way they once did, the FCC says, because they can put their shows on their own streaming services. It quotes its Media Bureau's order approving Nexstar's takeover of TEGNA: “[w]e have entered a new streaming age.”

Broadcasters asked the FCC to scrap the rule. Public interest groups and multichannel video distributors, the cable and satellite companies that pay stations to carry their signals, argued that the Commission has no legal authority to change it. They also said the cap protects local programming and holds down retransmission fees, which they said would otherwise push up subscription prices. Other commenters warned of fewer local journalists and an imbalance of power between the networks and their local affiliates.

The FCC answers that it can deal with such harms more directly, including when it reviews a particular deal, and that the 2004 law did not stop it from changing the rule. The research in the record points both ways. A 2024 study discussed in the order found that coverage of local events and politics fell by about 10% at stations Sinclair bought, rose by about the same amount at stations Nexstar bought, and showed no real change at stations Gray bought.

Nexstar is already past the line

Nexstar completed its takeover of TEGNA on March 19, 2026, the day the FCC approved the deal, which came with a waiver of the national cap. In its quarterly report filed on November 5, Nexstar says that at September 30 it owned or provided services to 265 full-power stations in 132 markets, reaching about 80% of U.S. TV households before the UHF discount. The FCC's order says ending the cap is a more sensible approach than keeping it and granting waivers for deals such as that one.

The repeal is not settled yet. Nexstar's report says the FCC has received requests to stay the decision and that court challenges are likely, which could affect the litigation over its TEGNA purchase. State attorneys general and DIRECTV have sued to block that merger on antitrust grounds. A federal court in California barred further integration of the two companies in April, Nexstar's appeal is scheduled for argument at the Ninth Circuit on November 17, and a trial is set for July 6, 2027.

The Office of Management and Budget's regulatory office has found the repeal to be a major rule under the Congressional Review Act, and the FCC is sending the order to Congress and the Government Accountability Office.

Related: what cable and satellite TV bills must show under the FCC's all-in pricing rule.