Carr: FCC to Expand Probe of Broadcaster Network/Affiliate Relationship
The FCC could soon look at strengthening broadcast affiliate stations’ right to preempt network programming, Chairman Brendan Carr told a group of reporters outside an NTCA event Tuesday. In a press conference the same day, President Donald Trump suggested that Carr should take action against ABC.
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Carr said that in “the next couple days or weeks,” the FCC will be taking a closer look at the network/affiliate relationship “and seeing how we can continue to make sure that the local affiliates feel empowered.” Preempting programs "is something they have a right to do under the FCC rules.”
Asked for more details, Carr pointed to a letter he sent to Comcast NBCUniversal in July (see 2507300049) announcing a probe into the network/affiliate relationship and said the FCC will consider “broadening that out at some point in the near term.” In the letter, Carr said the Media Bureau would be scrutinizing Comcast’s affiliation agreements for terms that “could unduly inhibit the ability of local broadcast TV stations to make programming decisions that best reflect the needs and interests of their communities.”
Carr’s comments Tuesday came just a few days after he reposted on social media Trump's demand that NBC fire late-night host Seth Meyers. Asked Tuesday what his post was intended to convey, Carr said Trump “has every right to express his position on that,” and he thought “it made sense for more people to see” Trump’s comments. Asked what FCC regulatees like Comcast and broadcasters should take from his post, Carr said “these are decisions for these companies to make.” Though Carr visited Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida the same weekend he amplified the president's post, he said Tuesday that Trump didn’t tell him to do so.
“I think it's important that broadcasters understand that they are different than other outlets, and there are things they can do to put their licenses in jeopardy if they're not operating in the public interest," Carr said. “And I think it's a good thing if broadcasts are thinking about making sure that they meet that public interest.”
The FCC’s letter to Comcast in July was sent a few days after a Trump post calling Comcast “Concast” and saying it's “an arm of the Democratic Party.”
During Tuesday's press conference with Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud, Trump told an ABC reporter that Carr should take action against the network. Responding to a question from the ABC reporter about the government’s files on Jeffrey Epstein, Trump said the matter was a “Democrat hoax,” and ABC is “a crappy company” and “one of the perpetrators” of the hoax. “I think the license should be taken away from ABC. Because your news is so fake and so wrong. We have a great commissioner, a chairman who should look at that,” Trump said. Television networks aren't licensed by the FCC.