The US Federal Communications Commission is scheduled to vote Thursday on whether to repeal a rule, dating back 85 years, that bars any single company from owning TV stations reaching more than 39% of American households.

The vote, set for 6 August, would scrap the national television multiple ownership rule — the ceiling that limits how big a single broadcaster's footprint can get across the country. FCC Chair Brendan Carr, a Donald Trump appointee, has long opposed the cap and is driving the repeal. Anna Gomez, the lone Democrat on the commission, has maintained that only Congress can eliminate it, because lawmakers enacted the cap into statute in the 1990s (Deadline).

One person celebrating ahead of the vote is Chris Ripley, CEO of Sinclair Broadcast Group — the second-largest owner of TV stations in the United States. Speaking on Sinclair's second-quarter earnings call on Wednesday, Ripley said he "couldn't be happier" and called the cap an outdated regulation (Deadline).

Sinclair's enthusiasm is not hard to trace. The company recently made a hostile takeover offer for rival station owner E.W. Scripps, which Scripps rejected. Removing the 39% ceiling would open far more room for exactly that kind of expansion — buying competitors and stretching a station portfolio across a wider share of the country.

The cap itself has had a turbulent history. Congress fixed it at 39% in a November 2003 compromise, having previously watched the FCC try to raise it to 45% before pulling it back down. That statutory fix is what Gomez points to: if Congress put the number in law, she argues, the FCC cannot simply vote it away.

The broader market context adds another layer. Nexstar Media Group, the top-ranked US station owner, had its $6.2 billion acquisition of Tegna blocked by a federal judge earlier in 2026, and the case is now before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals (Deadline). That ruling chilled consolidation. The FCC's expected repeal, if it holds, could warm it back up.

Sinclair's own numbers tell a mixed story behind the optimism. The company reported second-quarter revenue of $840 million, up 7% from a year earlier, but net losses of $1.06 per share — double what they were in the same period last year (Deadline).

For viewers at home, the question is whether fewer owners of local stations means fewer independent voices in local news. The FCC's Republican majority argues the cap is a relic of a pre-streaming era; its Democratic minority says the agency is overstepping its authority. The vote lands Thursday.