FCC should ditch 39% of TV ownership, let stations compete with Big Tech

America’s local television stations do something that the coastal media class likes to scoff at but that ordinary families rely on every day: They cover school board battles, town hall scandals, high school competitions, weekly fish warnings, snowstorms and hurricanes and the first minutes of a disaster when cell phone networks shut down and rumors flood social media.

Why then does Washington still manage these domestic institutions as in 1941?

Back then, the federal government set a national limit on how many local TV stations a single company could own. Decades later, that limit has grown to today’s “national audience reach,” a rule that prohibits any broadcast station group from owning stations that reach more than 39% of American TV households.

These restrictions, however, do not affect cable networks, satellite networks, national networks or streaming giants. This includes Google, Meta and other Big Tech servers that add local advertising dollars and determine what information people see with invisible algorithms. Local broadcasters are the only major video and news platform in America that has been told by the federal government: you don’t have to go up.

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That is not “competition.” It is pro-cartel.

The FCC’s own record shows how old the law is. The real limitation of national TV ownership dates back to the early days of television, a 1941-era policy choice made before the Internet, before cable, before satellite, before smartphones, before YouTube, before broadcasting. And while Congress raised the cap in the 1990s and early 2000s, it has been stuck at 39% since 2004, even as the market for what you see on your screens has changed beyond recognition.

National identity does nothing to prevent the media’s true focus. (Stock)

Here’s the part Washington often misses: voters see injustice, too.

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A new poll has just been released by Fabrizio-Ward that shows the majority of Americans are against this outdated patent. By a margin of 38 points, voters consider the ban on TV station ownership to be unfair. Even more striking, by a margin of eight to one, voters who get local news on TV say they are less likely to vote for a member of Congress who opposes allowing local TV station owners to compete nationally for advertising against cable networks and Internet broadcasters.

That is not a policy footnote. That’s a political warning label.

For years, defenders of the 39% cap have been repeating the same talking points: “diversity,” “local engagement” and the claim that big channel groups will somehow erase local voices. But in 2026, the real threat to diversity of opinion is not that a broadcaster can use multiple channels. It’s that a handful of Big Tech platforms control digital distribution pipelines with little ownership and little transparency.

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If we want more local emergency coverage, more local investigative reporting and news that matters to everyday Americans, we must stop starving the one system that delivers news for free to every American household.

National identity does nothing to prevent the media’s true focus. It does nothing to limit access to the streaming platform. It does nothing to limit the cable channel. It does nothing to limit the distribution potential of social media feeds. It only restricts people who still have FCC licenses, social obligations and the daily practice of appearing in local communities.

So what should conservatives do?

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First, stop apologizing for wanting a fair market. If you believe in competition, then competition should be real. A law that specifically binds one industry while its competitors operate without comparable restrictions is not a law. It is protection.

Second, take action. The FCC has an open plan on this matter and should finish the job and remove the deadlock. It has the authority and responsibility to remove this outdated administrative law that puts a heavy thumb on the Big Tech scale at the expense of local stations and local news.

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Conservatives have a choice: protect the lawless cap that makes Big Tech strong or drop it and let local TV compete, invest and operate — not just in cities, but from sea to shining sea across the breadth of our great, beautiful nation.

Voters are watching. And the numbers say they will remember those who stood with their communities and their stations when they were counted.