The Federal Communications Commission voted on August 6, 2026, to eliminate the national broadcast ownership cap, ending a decades-old rule that limited broadcast owners from holding stations reaching a combined total of more than 39 percent of US TV households.

FCC Chair Brendan Carr and Commissioner Olivia Trusty voted to repeal the cap; Democratic Commissioner Anna Gomez dissented. In place of the 39 percent ceiling, the FCC said it will apply "granular, case-by-case review" to determine whether proposed broadcast consolidation serves the public interest. The Verge

The vote formalizes a trajectory the commission signaled in July, when it announced plans to vote on an order repealing the national television multiple ownership rule and replacing it with the case-by-case public interest standard. The FCC had previously issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking seeking comment on whether to modify, retain, or eliminate the cap and the related UHF discount. FCC

Gomez argued in her dissent that the FCC lacks authority to lift the cap, because Congress wrote the 39 percent threshold into a 2004 law and only the legislative branch can remove it. That legal argument may surface in court, and the rule's elimination already has a live test case working through the federal judiciary.

In March, Carr approved the $6.2 billion merger of broadcasters Nexstar and Tegna, agreeing to waive the ownership cap to clear the transaction. A federal judge subsequently paused the merger pending a challenge by a group of state attorneys general. The merger's regulatory pathway, and its judicial fate, now operate in a different environment: the cap that required a waiver no longer exists as a rule. The Verge

Carr framed the repeal as a survival measure for local broadcasters. He pointed to the collapse of local newspapers as a cautionary indicator of what happens when legacy media cannot consolidate, and argued that the cap was an artificial constraint preventing broadcasters from competing with social media and streaming platforms that can reach "100 percent of the country." Reuters The Verge

The timeline moved quickly. As recently as October 28, 2025, Carr said the commission had made no decision on whether to lift the cap. By March 2026, he was signaling interest in accelerating broadcast license reviews, which are next scheduled for renewal in October 2028. Carr indicated he could speed up those reviews. Reuters Reuters

The ownership cap vote arrives during a period of assertive regulatory activity at the FCC under Carr. Also in August, the commission barred Chinese imports of new humanoid and quadruped robots, framing the restriction as a measure to boost domestic production. Reuters

The shift from a bright-line numerical threshold to discretionary case-by-case review is the structural change worth tracking. Under the old rule, a broadcaster knew with certainty whether a proposed acquisition would breach the 39 percent ceiling. Under the new framework, the same transaction's viability depends on how the FCC applies its public interest standard, a standard that is inherently fact-dependent and subject to the political composition of the commission at the time of review.

That introduces a different kind of uncertainty for dealmakers. A numerical cap is binary: you are under it or over it. A public interest test is qualitative, and the criteria can shift with each change of administration. Broadcasters who argued the cap was outdated may find that the replacement, while removing the ceiling, does not remove regulatory risk. It relocates it.

The legal challenge from state attorneys general in the Nexstar-Tegna case will be an early signal of how courts view the FCC's new posture. If Gomez's argument that only Congress can lift the cap gains traction in litigation, the commission's case-by-case framework could face judicial constraints even after the rule is formally gone.

Worth flagging: the FCC's replacement framework gives the agency significant interpretive latitude over what constitutes a permissible deal. Whether that latitude produces predictable, consistent outcomes for broadcasters, investors, and the public will depend on how Carr and future chairs exercise it. The 39 percent cap was a blunt instrument. Its replacement is not yet a sharp one.