The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) is urging the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to abolish local radio ownership restrictions and ease television ownership caps, citing an outdated regulatory framework in today’s competitive media environment.
In a September 19, 2025, filing, NAB argued that traditional broadcasters face intense competition from unregulated streaming services, digital platforms, and social media giants.
Ahead of the FCC’s September 30 quadrennial ownership review, NAB met with commissioners’ staff to advocate for deregulation. The group’s filing marks a bolder stance than its 2018 call for partial radio deregulation, now proposing the complete removal of local radio ownership limits.
Radio’s Declining Influence
NAB highlighted a sharp decline in AM/FM radio’s dominance, with Edison Research showing its share of listening time dropping to 34% in Q2 2025 from 52.1% in 2014. Streaming music (23%) and YouTube (14%) have eroded radio’s audience. Radio ad revenue has also fallen 30% since 2007, from $17.4 billion to an estimated $12.17 billion in 2025, per BIA Advisory Services.
Current rules, unchanged since 1996, cap station ownership based on market size, but NAB argues these limits are obsolete.
Television Under Streaming Pressure
For TV, NAB noted that broadcast television’s viewership share was just 19.1% in August 2025, compared to streaming’s 46.4%, with Netflix and YouTube alone accounting for 21.8%, per Nielsen data. Local TV ad revenue has dropped 42.9% from 2000 to 2024 (inflation-adjusted). NAB seeks to eliminate the 39% national TV household reach cap and local two-station-per-market limit, arguing these rules disadvantage broadcasters against global digital competitors.
Consolidation Concerns and Opposition
Recent moves by Nexstar Media Group and Sinclair, which blocked ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live” across their networks, underscore the impact of ownership concentration on programming. NAB anticipates pushback from cable and satellite providers, accusing them of supporting their own consolidation while opposing broadcast deregulation to maintain leverage in retransmission negotiations.
FCC’s Role and NAB’s Case
The FCC’s quadrennial review assesses whether ownership rules still serve competition, diversity, and localism. NAB argues that eliminating caps won’t limit FCC oversight, as individual license transfers would still face scrutiny. The filing reflects NAB’s strongest deregulatory push yet, driven by the belief that traditional rules cannot compete with the dominance of Big Tech and streaming platforms.