FCC to repeal 39% TV ownership cap in boost for Trump-friendly news orgs
FCC to repeal 39% TV ownership cap in boost for Trump-friendly news orgs
美国联邦通信委员会（FCC）将废除39%电视所有权上限，助力亲特朗普新闻机构
The Federal Communications Commission will vote to repeal the National Television Ownership Rule that is supposed to prevent a single broadcast station owner from reaching more than 39 percent of all TV households in the US. 美国联邦通信委员会（FCC）将投票废除《全国电视所有权规则》，该规则旨在防止单一广播电台所有者覆盖全美超过39%的电视家庭。
The proposed change sets up a likely court battle over the FCC claim that it has authority to repeal a limit set by Congress. FCC Chairman Brendan Carr has already treated the rule as more of a suggestion. In March, the Carr FCC granted a waiver allowing Nexstar Media Group to buy Tegna in a deal that let it reach over half of TV households. The Carr FCC argued that Congress gave it authority to modify or waive the rule. 这一拟议的变更引发了一场潜在的法律诉讼，焦点在于FCC声称其有权废除国会设定的上限。FCC主席布伦丹·卡尔（Brendan Carr）此前已将该规则视为“建议”而非强制规定。今年3月，卡尔领导下的FCC批准了一项豁免，允许Nexstar媒体集团收购Tegna，使该集团的覆盖范围超过了全美一半的电视家庭。卡尔领导的FCC辩称，国会已授权其修改或豁免该规则。
Carr now plans to repeal the 39 percent limit and replace it with a “case-by-case review” of each proposed merger, the chairman announced today in an op-ed published on Breitbart. The change would make it easier for the FCC to pick and choose which station groups get to surpass the limit. Under Carr, this would likely benefit news companies that provide favorable coverage for President Trump. 卡尔今日在《布赖特巴特新闻》（Breitbart）发表的评论文章中宣布，他计划废除39%的上限，并以针对每项拟议合并的“逐案审查”取而代之。这一改变将使FCC更容易选择哪些广播集团可以突破上限。在卡尔的领导下，这很可能使那些为特朗普总统提供正面报道的新闻公司受益。
“Americans no longer trust the legacy national media to report the news fairly or accurately,” Carr wrote in Breitbart, noting that trust of media “is even lower among Republicans.” Carr alleged that many local broadcast TV stations are “turning into little more than mouthpieces for programming produced in New York and Hollywood.” “美国人不再信任传统全国性媒体能公平或准确地报道新闻，”卡尔在《布赖特巴特新闻》中写道，并指出共和党人对媒体的信任度“甚至更低”。卡尔声称，许多地方广播电视台正“沦为纽约和好莱坞制作节目的传声筒”。
Gomez: Plan benefits Trump’s “billionaire buddies”
戈麦斯：该计划令特朗普的“亿万富翁伙伴”受益
Last year, when Carr threatened ABC affiliates with license revocations for carrying Jimmy Kimmel’s show, he said that national networks exert too much control over local TV stations and that he’s trying “to empower local TV stations to serve the needs of the local communities.” Carr has praised Trump for “fundamentally reshaping the media landscape,” and used his post at the FCC to exert pressure on news organizations that Trump doesn’t like. Nexstar helped Carr’s campaign against Kimmel by temporarily refusing to air the show on its stations. 去年，当卡尔威胁要吊销播出吉米·坎摩尔（Jimmy Kimmel）节目的ABC附属台的执照时，他声称全国性电视网对地方电视台控制过多，并表示他正试图“赋予地方电视台权力，以服务当地社区的需求”。卡尔曾称赞特朗普“从根本上重塑了媒体格局”，并利用其在FCC的职位向特朗普不喜欢的媒体机构施压。Nexstar曾通过在其旗下电台暂时停播坎摩尔的节目，协助了卡尔针对坎摩尔的行动。
Commissioner Anna Gomez, the only Democrat on the three-member FCC, today called Carr’s plan an “unlawful effort to hand control of the public airwaves to billionaire buddies of this administration.” She said it “will destroy local newsrooms, silence community reporting, and drive up costs for the American families who depend on local stations for news and emergency alerts.” Without the 39 percent cap, “this FCC is now poised to allow local broadcasters to sell those airwaves off to the highest bidder,” Gomez said. 作为FCC三名委员中唯一的民主党人，安娜·戈麦斯（Anna Gomez）委员今日称卡尔的计划是“将公共广播频率的控制权交给本届政府亿万富翁伙伴的非法行径”。她表示，这“将摧毁地方新闻编辑室，压制社区报道，并增加那些依赖地方台获取新闻和紧急警报的美国普通家庭的成本”。戈麦斯说，如果没有39%的上限，“现在的FCC准备允许地方广播公司将这些广播频率出售给出价最高的人。”
A press release issued by the FCC chairman’s office said that case-by-case reviews will allow mergers to exceed the 39 percent limit if the deal advances “localism, viewpoint diversity, and competition.” Carr wrote in his Breitbart op-ed that there has been “a steady decline in locally produced news” that would be fixed by letting companies own larger numbers of stations. The current rule prevents local broadcasters from achieving the scale in operations they need to challenge competitors, he argued. FCC主席办公室发布的新闻稿称，如果合并交易能促进“地方主义、观点多样性和竞争”，逐案审查将允许合并后的规模超过39%的上限。卡尔在《布赖特巴特新闻》的评论文章中写道，目前“本地制作的新闻一直在稳步减少”，而允许公司拥有更多电台将解决这一问题。他认为，现行规则阻碍了地方广播公司实现挑战竞争对手所需的运营规模。
“When it comes to broadcast news, our country could do with a little less Hollywood and a little more local reporting from communities across the country,” Carr wrote in Breitbart. “The FCC’s plan to switch from a national cap to a case-by-case review allows exactly that and shifts the focus back to the American people and the local communities they live in.” “在广播新闻方面，我们的国家需要少一点好莱坞，多一点来自全国各地社区的本地报道，”卡尔在《布赖特巴特新闻》中写道。“FCC从全国上限转向逐案审查的计划恰恰实现了这一点，并将焦点重新转移到美国人民及其所居住的当地社区身上。”
Only Congress can change cap, critics say
批评人士：只有国会才能改变上限
The planned change, set to be voted on at the commission’s August 6 meeting, is certain to face legal challenges. Only Congress can change the ownership cap, Gomez and other critics of Carr say. “Congress set the 39 percent national ownership cap in federal law, and only Congress has the authority to raise or eliminate it. The commission cannot waive away that limit simply because these corporate behemoths want to get out from under it,” Gomez said. 这一计划中的变更定于8月6日的委员会会议上进行投票，必将面临法律挑战。戈麦斯和其他批评卡尔的人士表示，只有国会才能改变所有权上限。“国会在联邦法律中设定了39%的全国所有权上限，只有国会有权提高或取消它。委员会不能仅仅因为这些企业巨头想要摆脱限制，就将其豁免，”戈麦斯说。
Gomez said the FCC tried and failed to change the cap over 20 years ago. “In 2003, the Commission raised the cap to 45 percent under its own authority,” she said. “Congress stepped in within months, rewrote the law to set the cap at 39 percent, and made clear the FCC did not have the authority to change it. An FCC vote to raise the cap now would be unlawful, as it would mean doing the exact thing Congress has already said the Commission cannot do.” Gomez was referring to a 2004 vote in which Congress amended the Telecommunications Act of 1996 to require the FCC to enforce a cap of 39 percent. 戈麦斯提到，FCC在20多年前曾试图改变该上限但以失败告终。“2003年，委员会曾自行将上限提高到45%，”她说。“国会在几个月内就进行了干预，重写了法律，将上限设定为39%，并明确表示FCC无权更改它。现在FCC投票提高上限将是非法的，因为这意味着做国会已经明确禁止委员会做的事情。”戈麦斯指的是2004年国会修订《1996年电信法》，要求FCC强制执行39%上限的那次投票。
FCC accused of illegally waiving limit for Nexstar
FCC被指非法为Nexstar豁免上限
The FCC was previously accused of exceeding its authority when it gave Nexstar a waiver that let it complete its Tegna deal. The FCC cannot legally waive the 39 percent limit because Congress “amended Section 202 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 to specifically bar the agency from granting waivers to the 39 percent cap Congress likewise dictated,” said a December 2025 FCC filing submitted by The United Church of Christ Media Justice Ministry, Public Knowledge, Free Press, and the Communications Workers of America. 此前，FCC在给予Nexstar豁免权以完成Tegna交易时，已被指控越权。根据基督联合教会媒体正义部、公共知识组织、自由新闻组织和美国通信工会于2025年12月提交的一份FCC文件，FCC无法合法豁免39%的上限，因为国会“修订了《1996年电信法》第202条，明确禁止该机构对国会规定的39%上限给予豁免”。
Nexstar now reaches 54.5 percent of households when calculated with the “UHF discount,” in which only half of the households reached by a UHF station are counted. Without the UHF-specific calculation, Nexstar’s reach grew from 70 percent to 80 percent when it bought Tegna. The Carr FCC said that Congress instructed it to set the 39 percent cap “through its rulemaking authority, which necessarily leaves the agency with the discretion to modify or waive its rules.” Nexstar目前的覆盖率在计算“UHF折扣”（即UHF电台覆盖的家庭仅计入一半）后为54.5%。如果不使用UHF特定计算方式，Nexstar在收购Tegna后，其覆盖率从70%增长到了80%。卡尔领导的FCC表示，国会指示其“通过规则制定权”设定39%的上限，这必然赋予了该机构修改或豁免其规则的自由裁量权。
Nexstar completed the Tegna acquisition on March 19, but a federal judge ordered the merging companies to stop integrating their assets and operations while an antitrust case brought by DirecTV proceeds. Nexstar is appealing the ruling. Carr’s plan to eliminate the 39 percent cap is supported by Nexstar and the primary lobby group for broadcasters. Nexstar于3月19日完成了对Tegna的收购，但一名联邦法官下令合并后的公司在DirecTV提起的反垄断诉讼进行期间，停止整合其资产和业务。Nexstar目前正在对该裁决提出上诉。卡尔取消39%上限的计划得到了Nexstar和广播公司主要游说团体的支持。