Nexstar CEO Banks on Trump’s FCC Chair to Kill Rules Against Local Media Monopolies

In Nexstar’s Q1 earnings call today, CEO Perry Sook sounded positively thrilled about the chance to gobble up more local media assets than are currently allowed. “Achieving deregulation is my top priority,” Sook said.

“In today’s competitive landscape where big tech and big media are afforded unbridled and ubiquitous reach, current restrictions on local broadcast ownership are outdated, arbitrary, and exclusionary, and no one can logically defend those rules,” Sook said.

“We are fortunate to have a strong FCC Chair in Brendan Carr who keenly understands the need for local broadcast deregulation and the relief that we and the industry need on both the national ownership cap and in market local ownership rules.”

Those rules were set in place to prevent one media company from having a monopoly over local media markets.

Right now, the rule reads as follows:

An entity is permitted to own up to two television stations in the same Designated Market Area (DMA) if either:

• The service areas – known as the digital noise limited service contour – of the stations do not overlap; or
• At least one of the stations is not ranked among the top-four rated stations in the DMA based on audience share. However, an applicant may seek to make a showing, based on the particular facts and circumstances, that a top-four combination would nonetheless serve the public interest despite the prohibition.

While this law is in place, voters are protected by receiving multiple viewpoints from various media organizations. Monopolies would allow a single media company to have unchecked sway over information in a given area.

“We think (deregulation) could go pretty far pretty fast,” Sook said.

Nexstar already has more than 200 owned or partner stations in 116 U.S. markets reaching 220 million people.

The Death of Free TV?

“We are also seeking to obtain a firm transition date for ATSC 1.0 standards to ATSC 3.0 standards, which will support and advance our rollout of high speed data transmission and other services allow us to fully monetize ancillary uses of our spectrum,” Sook said.

Right now, your local over-the-air stations broadcast on ATSC 1.0, which means you can grab the signal with an inexpensive antenna. You can also record that content with a service like Plex. But ATSC 3.0 could eliminate that ability. You will also need new equipment to receive those signals.

There’s nothing wrong with stations switching to ATSC 3.0, but killing ATSC 1.0 would be bad for consumers.

If you’d like to thwart Sook’s monopoly ambitions or his attempt to kill free over-the-air TV, contact your representatives and senators.