Trump threatening broadcast station licenses — explained
“Jimmy Kimmel Live!” The show shows the show outside the El Capitan entertainment center on the Hollywood Boulevard, where the show was released in Hollywood, Hollywood on September 18, 2025.
Frederic J. Brown | AFP | Getty Images
Disney This week, “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” From the broadcasting network, ABC sheds light on some of the media business where the federal government has control.
On Thursday, President Donald Trump said that his management should cancel the licenses of the “counter” broadcast TV stations. Brendan Carr, President of the Federal Communication Commission, made similar threats during a CNBC interview on Thursday.
Trump or Carr did not call the government’s power to obtain a broadcasting station license for the first time-put forward some of the Media Business Front and the center of consumers and stretched the power of the government through a large part of the sector.
What is a broadcast license?
Let’s start with basic information: crying like Disney’s ABC, Paramount Skydance’s CBS, Comcast Corp. NBC and FOX corp. Fox is part of a system to licens the government’s air spectrum to publish this household name stations.
This means free of charge to everyone who has antenna on television.
For example, TV networks such as CNN, MTV or FX are considered “top” and can be used for subscription fees. They are usually gathered together and distributed by companies such as Comcast, Charter Communications or directv.
Publishers like ABC, local news, live sports games and primetime sitcoms and dramas, including content and “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”
Although the way consumers monitor these programs have changed significantly from the days of use of an antenna for free imaging – now it is usually displayed through paid TV bundles, and the content is frequently found on flow platforms – the model remains largely the same.
Companies with local broadcast TV stations Nexstar Media Group And Sinclair From the government, undergraduate spectrum under the control of FCC – or public air waves -.
Thanks to this public range for radio and TV stations, the federal agency has the right to regulate broadcasting and in return, the networks require the “station’s station to work in the public interest, comfort and necessity”. In general, this means that the programming that responds to the needs and problems of the local license community. ” According to the FCC website.
Can Trump and FCC cancel licenses?
This definition of serving “public interest” is the place where FCC is reset by speeches to cancel Carr’s licenses.
On Thursday, Carr said CNBC’s “Squawk on the street” Kimmel’s conservative activist Charlie Kirk tied his alleged murderer to the Maga movement, and instead, “he probably seems to be directly misleading the American people … Probably one of the most important political events we’ve had for a long time.”
Trump pointed out that the government believed in prejudice against him as the president when the government registered the right to get licenses both this week and in the past.
“I read that the networks are 97% against me, again 97% negative,” Trump said on Thursday, referring to the 2024 election victory on Thursday. He said.
“They only give me bad publicity, press. So, they get licenses.” He said. He continued: “Maybe I would think that your licenses should be removed.”
People “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” On September 18, 2025, he was recorded for the publication after being suspended for his statements about Charlie Kirk’s assassination at Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles, Los Angeles.
David Swanson | Reuters
In August, Trump accused Networks ABC and NBC of being “two of the worst and most prejudiced networks in history” and proposed to cancel broadcasting licenses.
Carr is in a new position as FCC President, earlier this year, Re -awakened complaints The conservative organization is directed to ABC, NBC and CBS from the American Rights Center.
And in February, during a conversation Semafor’s “Trust Restore Innovation Summit” Summit Washington claimed that the agency would look closely at the licenses at DC.
He said: “If you have a license to be a publisher, you should serve the public interest ‘comes with something called. If you don’t want to do it, it’s okay, Car Carr said during the summit. “I will give you the address of FCC … You are free to deliver your license and you can go to Podcast and go at the highest level.”
What happens if ABC or NBC loses its license?
If the Federal Government thinks that a broadcasting TV network does not act in the public interest, it may cancel the license from the owner of the station and decides effectively in the local station market.
Local networks can prevent programming, that is, something other than what the wider network offers. If the FCC would find the broadcast content illegal, these theoretically keep the stations appropriate. However, it is not clear where this line will fall.
According to Roy Gutterman and Professor of Communication Law, Roy Gutterman and Roy Gutterman, the first change at the school of Syracuse Newhouse, the process of cancel the license is not so simple.
Gut Before someone’s license, there is an entire process, Gut Gutterman said, the issue would be subject to an investigation and procedure, and he would probably gain legal difficulties.
Typically, the debate about whether a station violated FCC’s instructions, in 2004, during the Super Bowl, Janet Jackson’s wardrobe malfunction, such as a deduction of news content or obscene deduction.
The threats of Trump and his administration receive a different struggle.
“This is an unprecedented subject, Gut Gutterman said. “The responsible use of air waves does not mean having a political language [the government] He does not want there … Responsible use is not a political problem. “
Pressure Installation
There is another factor here: the government’s role in local TV consolidation.
On Wednesday, Nexstar announced that ABC Kimmel will not be broadcast late at night before leaving Kimmel, and instead, he said he would foresee the “predictable future” because of the statements of the landlord.
While Disney has a part of ABC’s networks, Nexstar and similarly said that it will prevent the show. Nexstar has about 30 ABC networks throughout the United States – or 10% of more than 200 stations has the sum of Nexstar.
Nexstar is currently looking for government approval of an agreement of $ 6.2 billion to unite with the other broadcast TV station owner. TegnaIt would increase the regulations that have been ongoing for a long time for the broadcasting station owners.
Sinclair also said that although an agreement has not yet been announced, the broadcast TV station wanted to combine its business with another competitor.
Although Nexstar and their peers have increased through purchases for years, they have continued for a long time. Federal Borders This is the number of stations that parent companies can have.
On Tuesday, May 13, 2025, at North Javits in New York, an incredible staff of All-Star capabilities will establish the storytelling, Disney and each other while exhibiting the latest projects for the next year.
Michael Le Brecht | Disney General Entertainment Content | Getty Images
Following Trump’s November elections, the leaders of the station owners and other media businesses – he saw an opening for more consolidation and agreements.
FCC’s Carr, in recent months supporting the release of the broadcasting station ownership rules and boundaries, opening the path of such opportunities, by opening the way to help to recover a corrupted business model has announced to the public.
With the rise of the flow, Pay TV ecosystem consumer wing and TV networks and local subsidiaries felt the effects.
Although it is free to publish stations, distributors such as charter pay to publishers called return fees as publishers for the right to carry stations. These lucrative wages heavily bundled the profits of companies like Nexstar, which means that the decreasing salary-TV customers fall into the broadcast profit.
Explanation: Comcast is the parent company of NBCuniversal, the owner of CNBC. Versant will be the new home company of CNBC under a planned spinoff.
