An indication is seen outdoors of the “Jimmy Kimmel Stay!” present outdoors 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 Pictures
Disney’s choice this week to pull “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 “in opposition to” him. Federal Communications Fee Chair Brendan Carr has made comparable threats, together with throughout a CNBC interview, additionally on Thursday.
It isn’t the primary time Trump or Carr has invoked the federal government’s energy to drag 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 significant a part of the business.
What’s a broadcast license?
Let’s begin with the fundamentals: Networks corresponding 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 with a view to broadcast these household-name stations.
Meaning free, over-the-air service to anybody with an antenna on their TV.
Pay-TV networks corresponding to CNN, MTV or FX, for instance, are thought-about “over-the-top” and accessible for subscription charges. They’re typically bundled collectively and distributed by firms corresponding to Comcast, Constitution Communications or DirecTV.
Broadcasters corresponding to ABC are recognized for programming that features native information, reside sports activities, prime-time sitcoms and dramas, in addition to late-night exhibits corresponding to “Jimmy Kimmel Stay!”
Though the best way shoppers watch these packages has considerably modified from the times of utilizing an antenna at no cost viewership — now they’re typically seen by way of pay-TV bundles, plus the content material is steadily discovered on streaming platforms — the mannequin has remained largely the identical.
Corporations that personal native broadcast TV stations, corresponding to Nexstar Media Group and Sinclair, license spectrum — or the general public airwaves — from the federal government, with the FCC in management.
By means of this public spectrum for radio and TV stations, the federal company has the best to control broadcasting and requires every community “by legislation to function its station within the ‘public curiosity, comfort and necessity.’ Typically, this implies it should air programming that’s conscious of the wants and issues of its local people of license,” in line 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 advised 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, had been “not a joke,” and as an alternative, he stated, had been “showing to instantly mislead the American public about … most likely one of the vital important 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 previously — he has pointed to what he stated is bias in opposition to him as president.
“I’ve learn someplace that the networks had been 97% in opposition to me, once more, 97% adverse,” Trump stated Thursday, referring to his 2024 election victory.
“They offer me solely dangerous publicity, press. I imply, they’re getting a license,” Trump stated. “I might suppose perhaps their license must be taken away.”
Individuals 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 submit as FCC chairman, reawakened complaints directed at ABC, NBC and CBS from the conservative group the Middle 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 can be trying carefully at licenses.
“If you are going to have a license to be a broadcaster, it comes with one thing referred to as ‘it’s a must to serve the general public curiosity.’ In case you do not need to try this, that is OK,” Carr stated throughout the summit. “I gives you the handle 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 actually 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, that means air one thing apart from what the broader community is providing up. That may theoretically maintain the stations in compliance if the FCC had been to search out the printed content material illegal. Nevertheless it’s unclear the place that line would fall.
The method of revoking a license is not so easy, in line with Roy Gutterman, a professor and professional on communications legislation and the First Modification at Syracuse College’s Newhouse Faculty.
“There’s an entire course of earlier than you’ll be able to yank somebody’s license,” Gutterman stated, including that the matter can 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 youngsters’s programming, a minimize to information content material, or obscenity — corresponding to Janet Jackson’s wardrobe malfunction throughout the Tremendous Bowl in 2004.
Trump and his administration’s threats take a distinct tack.
“That is such an unprecedented problem,” Gutterman stated. “Accountable use of the airwaves does not imply having the political language [the government] would not need on there … Accountable use is not a political problem.”
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 evening present and as an alternative would preempt it “for the foreseeable future” because of the host’s statements.
Whereas Disney owns a portion of its ABC-affiliated networks, Nexstar, in addition to Sinclair — which equally stated it will 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 whole.
Nexstar is presently searching for 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 house owners.
Sinclair has additionally stated it is seeking 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 over time via 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 unimaginable 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 Common Leisure Content material | Getty Pictures
Following Trump’s election in November, leaders of the station house owners — in addition to different media companies — noticed a gap for additional consolidation and offers.
The FCC’s Carr has additionally publicly stated in latest months that he would help eliminating broadcast station possession guidelines and caps, paving the best way 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 corresponding to Constitution pay the broadcasters so-called retransmission charges, on a per-subscriber foundation, for the best to hold the stations. These profitable charges closely buoy the income of firms corresponding to Nexstar, which suggests dwindling pay-TV prospects 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.