FCC files ‘early-renewal order’ threatening Disney/ABC’s broadcast licenses

The Federal Communications Commission is once again taking unprecedented action to pressure broadcasters.

This time, the focus is once again on Disney and ABC after late-night host Jimmy Kimmel told a joke the Trump administration views as unsavory, echoing back to last September when Kimmel was taken off the air temporarily after a joke he made following the murder of conservative activist Charlie Kirk inspired FCC chairman Brendan Carr to threaten a revocation of Disney’s broadcast licenses.

In September, local broadcast station owners like Sinclair and Nexstar — then needing approval from the Trump administration for a pending merger — took Kimmel off the air in markets where they operated ABC affiliates. No such preemption has happened this time around, with Sinclair and Nexstar’s deal having been approved by the FCC last month.

So without the support of local station owners, and with Disney seemingly keeping Kimmel on the air, Carr is choosing to dial up the pressure.

Per Alex Weprin of The Hollywood Reporter, the FCC is “calling in Disney’s broadcast licenses for early renewal, citing the public interest standard and ‘the agency’s prohibition of unlawful discrimination.'”

Disney responded to the FCC’s filing with a statement:

“We have received the Federal Communications Commission’s order initiating an accelerated review of the licenses held by ABC’s owned television stations. ABC and its stations have a long record of operating in full compliance with FCC rules and serving their local communities with trusted news, emergency information, and public‑interest programming. We are confident that record demonstrates our continued qualifications as licensees under the Communications Act and the First Amendment and are prepared to show that through the appropriate legal channels. Our focus remains, as always, on serving viewers in the local communities where our stations operate.”

The possibility of the FCC’s move was first surfaced in a report by Liz Hoffman and Rohan Goswami of Semafor on Tuesday. The process would subject Disney to lengthy hearings in which the company would be forced to defend and justify the broadcast licenses for its eight owned-and-operated ABC affiliates across the country, CNN reports. These stations would include ABC affiliates in New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Houston, San Francisco, Raleigh-Durham, and Fresno.

To be clear, this process would only threaten ABC affiliates in the eight aforementioned markets; broadcast licenses are granted at the local level. However, losing licenses in several of the largest media markets in the country would have a direct impact of Disney’s broadcast business, including its ability to distribute live sports to audiences across the country.

Nothing is imminent, and any process would take quite some time to play out. Additionally, it’s quite unlikely that Disney would actually lose its licenses. However, this type of action from the FCC could have a chilling effect on all broadcasters, especially as they weigh decisions on where to place their most valuable programming like live sports. If the FCC begins targeting broadcast licenses, networks might choose to place more live sports programming on cable channels or streaming services that aren’t beholden to the government’s whims.

Per CNN, the FCC filed its first early-renewal order in decades on Monday, targeting a small license holder called Bridge News. So it’s not just the major broadcasters the FCC is going after, but the small station owners that might operate one or two ABC or NBC affiliates in a given region. A widespread crackdown would discourage networks from placing any meaningful programming on broadcast for fear those programs could be unavailable in certain markets based purely on the FCC’s scattershot decisions.

To reiterate, it is very unlikely the situation would become this dire. The FCC could presumably decide to back out mid-review if it deems the political calculus isn’t favorable. But the situation is certainly worth monitoring, because it doesn’t just impact Disney, but the broadcast television industry as a whole.