The chief executive of the commercial broadcasting industry’s largest lobbying group has called on federal regulators to eliminate national and local market ownership caps that prevent TV and radio conglomerates from growing larger.

In a keynote address at the Media Institute’s 2025 Communications Forum this week, the CEO of the National Association of Broadcasters, Curtis LeGeyt, said the ownership rules harkened back to a time when the commercial radio and TV industries had few competitors, but were outdated in an era where streaming audio and video platforms are backed by corporate owners that have comparatively few restraints.

“Local broadcasting is a highly regulated business in a rapidly evolving sector of the economy,” LeGeyt said. “Rapid evolution and government regulation are words that historically do not go together. As broadcasters, we have lived through that disconnect.”

Federal regulations currently prevent commercial television broadcasters from owning licensed stations that reach more than 39 percent of the American viewing audience. Additionally, TV broadcasters typically cannot own more than two of the top four TV stations in a given area.

Likewise, the radio industry faces similar restrictions, with rules in place that limit the number of licensed AM and FM radio stations that a company can own at a single time.

Broadcasters have used loopholes to overcome some of these limitations. Nexstar Media Group and Sinclair, Inc, two of the largest independent owners of licensed TV stations in the country, operate stations technically owned by other companies through local marketing agreements (LMAs), which allow their influence and reach to grow beyond what the FCC originally intended.

The use of LMAs — sometimes also referred to as shared services agreements (SSAs) — has faced numerous legal challenges by cable and satellite operators. Under federal law, broadcasters are allowed to demand a redistribution payment in exchange for cable and satellite carriage of their channels and networks. Cable and satellite companies have complained in recent years that the use of LMAs allows broadcasters to force pay TV companies into accepting higher rates for channels that are passed on to customers in their bills. Accordingly, cable and satellite subscription fees have skyrocketed over the past decade.

Eliminating the ownership cap for TV stations would almost certainly lead to a situation where commercial broadcasters acquire the shell companies involved in the LMAs. But LeGeyt said the government should still lift the ownership cap because broadcasters have increased competition from streaming services — some owned directly by the TV networks themselves — which are able to scale up their businesses because of an absence of similar government regulation.

“For years, the FCC has treated TV and radio broadcasting as though it exists in isolation, ignoring the rise of cable, satellite, streaming and social media platforms that dominate today’s media consumption,” LeGeyt said. “These new competitors are not bound by the same public interest obligations as local stations, nor do they face the same regulatory burdens.”

LeGeyt noted that local TV and radio broadcasters are often the first to report from the scene of major disasters, and provide timely updates to the public during emergency situations.

By comparison, major technology companies “don’t send reporters to the Potomac River at night when there is a tragic air disaster or offer reporting based on how that devastating event impacted the D.C. and Wichita communities,” LeGeyt said.

Maybe not. But almost every local TV broadcaster that covered the recent mid-air collision between a U.S. Army helicopter and an American Airlines passenger jet over the Potomac River last month streamed their TV coverage on YouTube and Facebook — even though none were obligated to do so.

Moreover, most local and national news operations relied upon a live feed from Earthcam that was archived on YouTube showing the moment the two aircraft collided — because none of them had reporters at the Potomac River at the time, and no TV or radio station had its cameras trained on the river at the precise moment of the crash.

LeGeyt cited a Pew Research study that found one-third of American adults under the age of 30 who receive their daily news from TikTok, and data from Nielsen that showed YouTube accounts for around 10 percent of all time spent with TV in America each month for the past year. He said the NAB and the broadcast industry welcomed the competition that YouTube, TikTok and others provided, without noting that much of the eyewitness material used throughout local newscasts originate from those platforms.

“As newspapers across the country shutter their doors, local TV and radio stations are stepping in to fill the gap,” LeGeyt affirmed. “They are ensuring our communities still have access to the vital local news, verified information and stories they need to stay informed, connected and engaged. But we can do more.”

LeGeyt claimed that research showed “as broadcast companies are allowed to grow, the hours of local news they provide grows, too.” He cited no specific research that proved this, but offered an anecdote that “as the number of television station groups nationwide has decreased…the total hours of local broadcast news has increased by 33 percent.”

While it is true that the number of local news broadcasts have increased in recent years, it isn’t because television station groups are consolidating, as LeGeyt suggested. Instead, it is the economic dependency on advertising and distribution fees from pay TV platforms that has convinced local TV station owners to air more local news shows.

For one, local news allows a broadcast station owner to keep 100 percent — or close to 100 percent — of the ad inventory in any given hour. By comparison, broadcasters typically have to share ad time with major networks like ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox when airing their prime-time shows or sports, and share a similar amount with the distributors of syndicated content in lieu of direct licensing fees for shows like “Seinfeld” and “Two and a Half Men.”

The economic incentive weighs in favor of dropping syndicated shows where possible in order to air more newscasts. Additionally, when disputes arise between pay TV platforms and broadcasters, the latter typically leans on the vast availability of local news on their channels, and the absence of that programming when the channels are removed. That leverage is tremendous, as local news is something older TV viewers still want access to on cable and satellite platforms.

While local news broadcasts are increasing, it is also true that local news investments are decreasing — and, as TV station owners consolidate, they’ve increasingly looked for ways to synergize their resources.

Last year, Paramount Global launched a new initiative that involved pooling news resources at three of its CBS-owned stations in California. As part of the strategy, reporters at stations in Sacramento, San Francisco and Los Angeles produce packages for their own markets that can re-air during newscasts on co-owned stations. Those stations also use a small team of investigative reporters to produce news packages focused on matters involving the state government.

Paramount used that synergy to effectuate mass layoffs at all three stations within the last 12 months. More than 50 reporters, producers, assignment editors, creative services employees and market sales workers have been let go, according to two sources. Some roles left vacant by layoffs are being filled with new hires who receive less pay and benefits compared to the employees who performed the same job duties, one source noted.

Other broadcasters, including Sinclair and Allen Media, have closed local newsrooms in small and rural TV markets, opting instead to centralize operations at a neighboring station that now produces news for two or three different communities.

Earlier this year, Allen Media generated a significant amount of negative attention after the company revealed plans to lay off nearly all of its local TV meteorologists in favor of producing regionalized weather forecasts from the Atlanta offices of The Weather Channel, which it owns. The company quickly retreated from the layoffs, but is still moving forward with plans to centralize its local weather forecasts, albeit on a smaller scale.

LeGeyt didn’t address these newsroom consolidations or layoffs, but did say that local broadcasters are still filling a gap left vacant by the newspaper industry, which faced its own downturn after several decades of blockbuster mergers that failed to produce results.

“We are doing our part to serve our communities at the very time they need us most,” LeGeyt claimed. “We look forward to working with the FCC and Congress to do their part to ensure local broadcasters can be unshackled from the outdated rules that have held us back for so long. The time to act is now.”