The FCC voted 2-1 to eliminate the 39% local TV station ownership cap. Gone. Replaced with a case-by-case approach, which is what regulatory agencies call "we'll figure it out later."
Thirty-nine percent. Not 40. Not 38. Someone in 1996 looked at the entire American television landscape and said the magic number is 39. Probably took six months of committee meetings. Probably cost taxpayers four million dollars in consulting fees. Definitely involved a PowerPoint deck with at least seventy slides.
The Democrat on the commission said lifting the cap is illegal. Says only Congress can do that. The other two commissioners disagreed by voting yes. Constitutional scholars will debate this for years. The rest of us will continue not knowing what percentage of local TV stations anyone owns because we stopped watching local TV in 2009.
Case-by-case approach means every media conglomerate now gets to argue why their specific consolidation is fine actually. Sinclair's lawyers are already printing the briefs. They've been waiting for this since the Bush administration. The first one, not the second one.
Retail traders heard about this and immediately started searching for TV station tickers. Found none. Got confused. Bought Roku calls instead. Roku is not a TV station. Roku will never be a TV station. Those calls expired worthless on Friday.
The 39% cap stood for decades. Survived multiple administrations. Outlasted MySpace, Vine, and Google Plus. Protected local media diversity through the golden age of five companies owning everything. Then three guys in Washington decided percentages are outdated and vibes are in.
This changes absolutely nothing about your portfolio, your trading strategy, or your life, but you read this far anyway.
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