{"id":391440,"date":"2025-11-20T04:28:14","date_gmt":"2025-11-20T04:28:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/391440\/"},"modified":"2025-11-20T04:28:14","modified_gmt":"2025-11-20T04:28:14","slug":"fcc-launches-review-of-network-affiliate-relationships","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/391440\/","title":{"rendered":"FCC Launches Review Of Network-Affiliate Relationships"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tFCC<\/a> Chairman Brendan Carr<\/a> announced a review of the relationships between broadcast networks and their affiliates, calling into question contractural restrictions that penalize stations for pre-empting shows and those that prevent them from airing rival programming.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe FCC will take comments <\/a>on a host of issues, rooted in Carr\u2019s belief that networks have gained too much leverage at the expense of local stations.<\/p>\n

\n\tHe wrote on X, \u201cThe FCC has an obligation to ensure that local broadcast TV stations meet their public interest obligations. Yet National Programmers operating out of New York & Hollywood are reportedly preventing those broadcasters from serving their local communities\u2014including by punishing them for exercising their right to preempt national programming.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn September, Carr warned ABC over comments that late-night host Jimmy Kimmel<\/a> made about Charlie Kirk. Within hours, two large station groups, Sinclair and Nexstar, said that they would not air Kimmel\u2019s show, and ABC said that it was pulling the host off the air. <\/p>\n

\n\tKimmel was returned to the broadcast the next week, but Carr framed the episode as a case of local broadcasters revolting against the influence of national programmers.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe FCC Media Bureau notice states that they \u201cseek comment on whether such control is attributable to restrictive conditions in affiliation agreements or a result of an imbalance of power between the networks and their affiliates or other factors.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAmong other things, the FCC is asking for comment on whether \u201cnational programmers able to take actions or threaten to punish local broadcast TV stations that attempt to exercise their lawful right to preempt national programming.\u201d The agency also poses the question of whether affiliates \u201cshould be allowed to broadcast programs of other networks as well as to schedule their own programs.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe FCC also seeks comment on \u201cthe extent to which networks use their positions in the market to unduly influence the terms of the affiliation agreements with their affiliate stations.\u201d That includes the movement of broadcast programming to streaming platforms, and whether that gives them \u201cleverage to impose burdensome and restrictive terms in the affiliation agreements with their local affiliate stations.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSince he became chairman, Carr has defended his investigation of networks on everything from diversity, equity and inclusion policies to news programming as within the scope of the FCC\u2019s authority to ensure that broadcasters are operating in the public interest. There have been calls for the FCC to open a proceeding on defining just what the \u201cpublic interest\u201d means, and Carr has expressed openness to it, but has yet to do so.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe sole Democrat on the commission, Anna Gomez<\/a>, has been sharply critical of Carr and the Trump administration over threats and warnings made to broadcasters about their programming. Earlier this week, Donald Trump<\/a> called on ABC to lose its broadcast license after one of its news correspondents asked questions he disliked. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe FCC doesn\u2019t get to decide whether the news coverage of those in power is acceptable,\u201d Gomez wrote on X. \u201cIt has neither the legal authority nor the constitutional right to pursue broadcasters for their journalism. These threats sound ominous, but they\u2019re empty.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe FCC licenses broadcast stations, not networks, albeit ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox own a number of outlets in major markets.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn the FCC proceeding on network-affiliate relationships, comments are due on Dec. 10 and replies due on Dec. 24. Such comment periods sometimes lead to a rulemaking proceeding, but not always.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe proceeding is hardly the first initiative the FCC has taken to try to boost the power of locals stations. In the 1970s, the agency imposed the primetime access rule, forcing networks to give up the 7:30 p.m. half hour of primetime on weeknights. While the idea was that stations would schedule their own local programming, it proved to be a huge boost to the syndication market, and the slot became a haven for national game shows like Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FCC Chairman Brendan Carr announced a review of the relationships between broadcast networks and their affiliates, calling into…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":391441,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[57485,51396,69,171,36397,11171,173,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-391440","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-anna-gomez","9":"tag-brendan-carr","10":"tag-donald-trump","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-fcc","13":"tag-jimmy-kimmel","14":"tag-tv","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-unitedstates","17":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115580142257150269","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391440","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=391440"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391440\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/391441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=391440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=391440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=391440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}