Dangers Of FCC Approving A ABC, CBS, NBC, & Fox Merger

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The FCC has recently announced plans to reconsider its longstanding prohibition on mergers among the four major broadcast networks — ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox. getty Imagine turning on your TV and realizing every channel features the same anchor, the same jokes, and the same commercials for an insurance company that somehow owns half the media landscape. Sounds dystopian? Maybe. But that’s the world we might be inching toward if the FCC ever decides to toss out the long-standing rules that prevent the four major broadcast networks—ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox—from merging, and the related rule that prevents any single company from owning more than two broadcast networks in a local market. Before you grab your popcorn (or your remote), let’s unpack what such a change could mean—for viewers, advertisers, and the smaller broadcasters just trying to keep their antennas above water. The Current Rules in a Nutshell In a move that could reshape the U.S. media landscape, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has recently announced plans to reconsider its longstanding prohibition on mergers among the four major broadcast networks — ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox. The agency is also seeking public comment on whether to revise or eliminate other media-ownership rules, including caps on local station ownership and national reach limits. Currently, the FCC has a few key guardrails to keep broadcast television from becoming a media monopoly. First, no merger among the “Big Four” broadcast networks. Second, one entity can’t own more than two broadcast networks in the same local market. Any fundamental change to the current rules would mark one of the most transformative regulatory overhauls in the history of the broadcast industry. The stakes are high: under current rules, no single entity may own more than one of the “Big Four” networks, and ownership of multiple…