An indication is seen exterior of the “Jimmy Kimmel Stay!” present exterior the El Capitan Leisure Centre on Hollywood Boulevard, from the place the present is broadcast in Hollywood, California on Sept. 18, 2025.
Frederic J. Brown | AFP | Getty Photographs
Disney’s resolution this week to tug “Jimmy Kimmel Stay!” from its broadcast community ABC is shining a light-weight on part of the media enterprise over which the federal authorities has management.
On Thursday, President Donald Trump prompt his administration ought to revoke the licenses of broadcast TV stations that he stated are “towards” him. Federal Communications Fee Chair Brendan Carr has made comparable threats, together with throughout a CNBC interview, additionally on Thursday.
It is not the primary time Trump or Carr has invoked the federal government’s energy to tug a broadcast station license — placing an in-the-weeds a part of the media enterprise entrance and middle for shoppers, and flexing the federal government’s energy over a serious a part of the business.
What’s a broadcast license?
Let’s begin with the fundamentals: Networks similar to Disney’s ABC, Paramount Skydance’s CBS, Comcast Corp.’s NBC and Fox Corp.’s Fox are a part of a system that requires them to acquire over-the-air spectrum licenses from the federal authorities to be able to broadcast these household-name stations.
Which means free, over-the-air service to anybody with an antenna on their TV.
Pay-TV networks similar to CNN, MTV or FX, for instance, are thought-about “over-the-top” and obtainable for subscription charges. They’re usually bundled collectively and distributed by firms similar to Comcast, Constitution Communications or DirecTV.
Broadcasters similar to ABC are identified for programming that features native information, stay sports activities, prime-time sitcoms and dramas, in addition to late-night reveals similar to “Jimmy Kimmel Stay!”
Though the way in which shoppers watch these packages has considerably modified from the times of utilizing an antenna free of charge viewership — now they’re usually seen by way of pay-TV bundles, plus the content material is incessantly discovered on streaming platforms — the mannequin has remained largely the identical.
Corporations that personal native broadcast TV stations, similar to Nexstar Media Group and Sinclair, license spectrum — or the general public airwaves — from the federal government, with the FCC in management.
By way of this public spectrum for radio and TV stations, the federal company has the precise to control broadcasting and requires every community “by regulation to function its station within the ‘public curiosity, comfort and necessity.’ Typically, this implies it should air programming that’s attentive to the wants and issues of its area people of license,” in keeping with the FCC web site.
Can Trump and the FCC revoke licenses?
That definition of serving the “public curiosity” is what the FCC’s Carr has zeroed in on with conversations round revoking licenses.
On Thursday, Carr informed CNBC’s “Squawk on the Avenue” that feedback by Kimmel, linking the suspect within the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk to Trump’s MAGA motion, have been “not a joke,” and as an alternative, he stated, have been “showing to immediately mislead the American public about … most likely one of the crucial vital political occasions we have had in a very long time.”
When Trump has famous the federal government’s proper to remove licenses — each this week and prior to now — he has pointed to what he stated is bias towards him as president.
“I’ve learn someplace that the networks have been 97% towards me, once more, 97% unfavorable,” Trump stated Thursday, referring to his 2024 election victory.
“They provide me solely dangerous publicity, press. I imply, they’re getting a license,” Trump stated. “I’d suppose perhaps their license needs to be taken away.”
Folks protest on the El Capitan Leisure Centre, the place “Jimmy Kimmel Stay!” was recorded for broadcast, following his suspension for remarks he made relating to Charlie Kirk’s assassination, on Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles, California, U.S. Sept. 18, 2025.
David Swanson | Reuters
In August, Trump accused networks ABC and NBC of being “two of the worst and most biased networks in historical past” and prompt revoking their broadcast licenses.
Carr earlier this 12 months, freshly in his publish as FCC chairman, reawakened complaints directed at ABC, NBC and CBS from the conservative group the Heart for American Rights.
And in February, throughout a dialog at Semafor’s “Innovating to Restore Belief in Information” summit in Washington, D.C., he prompt the company could be wanting carefully at licenses.
“If you are going to have a license to be a broadcaster, it comes with one thing known as ‘you must serve the general public curiosity.’ If you happen to do not need to do this, that is OK,” Carr stated in the course of the summit. “I provides you with the deal with of the FCC … you are free to show your license in and you may go podcast and also you go over-the-top.”
What occurs if ABC or NBC loses its license?
If the federal authorities deems a broadcast TV community is not appearing within the public curiosity, it could possibly revoke the license from the station’s proprietor, and the native station would successfully go darkish in its market.
The native networks can preempt the programming, which means air one thing aside from what the broader community is providing up. That may theoretically preserve the stations in compliance if the FCC have been to seek out the published content material illegal. But it surely’s unclear the place that line would fall.
The method of revoking a license is not so easy, in keeping with Roy Gutterman, a professor and knowledgeable on communications regulation and the First Modification at Syracuse College’s Newhouse College.
“There’s an entire course of earlier than you possibly can yank somebody’s license,” Gutterman stated, including that the matter could be topic to an investigation and process — and would possible garner authorized challenges.
Sometimes, the dialogue of whether or not a station violated the FCC’s tips facilities round kids’s programming, a reduce to information content material, or obscenity — similar to Janet Jackson’s wardrobe malfunction in the course of the Tremendous Bowl in 2004.
Trump and his administration’s threats take a special tack.
“That is such an unprecedented concern,” Gutterman stated. “Accountable use of the airwaves doesn’t suggest having the political language [the government] would not need on there … Accountable use is not a political concern.”
Strain mounting
There’s one other issue at play right here: The federal government’s position in native TV consolidation.
On Wednesday, earlier than ABC sidelined Kimmel, Nexstar introduced its stations affiliated with ABC would not air the late night time present and as an alternative would preempt it “for the foreseeable future” as a result of host’s statements.
Whereas Disney owns a portion of its ABC-affiliated networks, Nexstar, in addition to Sinclair — which equally stated it might preempt the present — personal the overwhelming majority. Nexstar owns about 30 ABC-affiliated networks throughout the U.S., or 10% of the greater than 200 stations Nexstar owns in complete.
Nexstar is at present in search of authorities approval of a $6.2 billion deal to merge with fellow broadcast TV station proprietor Tegna, which might upend longstanding rules for broadcast station homeowners.
Sinclair has additionally stated it is trying to merge its broadcast TV station enterprise with one other competitor, though a deal has but to be introduced.
Whereas Nexstar and its friends have bulked up through the years by means of acquisitions, they have been topic to longstanding federal limits on the variety of stations that these father or mother firms can personal.
On Tuesday, Could 13, 2025 at North Javits in New York Metropolis, an unbelievable roster of all-star expertise will tout their connections to storytelling, Disney, and one another whereas showcasing their newest initiatives for the upcoming 12 months.
Michael Le Brecht | Disney Normal Leisure Content material | Getty Photographs
Following Trump’s election in November, leaders of the station homeowners — in addition to different media companies — noticed a gap for additional consolidation and offers.
The FCC’s Carr has additionally publicly stated in current months that he would assist eliminating broadcast station possession guidelines and caps, paving the way in which for such offers, which might assist salvage a enterprise mannequin that is being disrupted.
With the rise of streaming, the pay-TV ecosystem has bled shoppers, and broadcast TV networks and native associates have additionally felt the consequences.
Whereas the stations are free to air, distributors similar to Constitution pay the broadcasters so-called retransmission charges, on a per-subscriber foundation, for the precise to hold the stations. These profitable charges closely buoy the income of firms similar to Nexstar, which implies dwindling pay-TV clients cuts into broadcast income.
Disclosure: Comcast is the father or mother firm of NBCUniversal, which owns CNBC. Versant would change into the brand new father or mother firm of CNBC below a deliberate spinoff.
