Sinclair pushes for ownership reform, NextGen TV transition in FCC filing

Sinclair has submitted extensive comments to the Federal Communications Commission urging sweeping deregulation of broadcast ownership rules and acceleration of the NextGen TV ATSC 3.0 transition.

In their April 11 filing responding to the FCC’s “Delete, Delete, Delete” initiative seeking input on rules that could be modified or eliminated, Sinclair argued that broadcasters face an unfair competitive landscape against largely unregulated Big Tech platforms.

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“Broadcasters are competing with Big Media and overpowered and unregulated new Big Tech entrants with both hands tied behind our backs due to archaic regulatory structures that fail to reflect current competitive conditions,” Sinclair stated in its filing.

Ownership reform seen as critical

The broadcast group identified the elimination of both local and national ownership caps as its top priorities for regulatory relief.

Sinclair contended that the National Ownership Cap, which prohibits a single entity from owning stations that collectively reach more than 39% of U.S. television households, is “based on the faulty premise that a broadcaster at the top of the cap has a 39% market share.”

“The Commission is in fact required by the plain language of the statute to reduce or eliminate regulatory constraints in light of competition to serve the public interest,” Sinclair argued, referring to Congress’s directive that the FCC review its media ownership rules every four years.

 “True national reach is an opportunity accessible to virtually all video programming platforms other than broadcast television, putting broadcasters at a severe competitive disadvantage,” Sinclair noted on the competitive disadvantage broadcasters face.

Sinclair warned that maintaining current regulations threatens local journalism.

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“If broadcasters are artificially constrained by a head-in-the-sand regulatory approach that ignores competitive realities, they will inevitably be forced to cut local news budgets just as overregulation forced many newspapers to shut down—leaving local communities with less local journalism and fewer options.”

ATSC 3.0 transition timeline supported

Sinclair expressed support for the National Association of Broadcasters‘ petition to establish a timeline to complete the ATSC 3.0 transition in the top 55 markets by February 2028 and all other markets by February 2030.

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The broadcast group recommended several rule modifications to facilitate the transition:

• Relaxing coverage requirements for ATSC 1.0 simulcast signals
• Reducing the expedited processing threshold from 95% to 75% coverage
• Eliminating requirements to post and update hosting arrangements
• Shortening the MVPD notice period from 90 to 30 days

“Broadcasters will need greater flexibility in hosting arrangements in order to extend the transition to the remaining (more complicated) markets,” Sinclair noted regarding ATSC 3.0 implementation requirements.

Additional regulatory relief sought

Beyond ownership and ATSC 3.0 changes, Sinclair requested elimination or modification of children’s television programming requirements, arguing that the Commission should “give broadcasters discretion to serve the E/I needs of their audience in the good faith judgment of the licensee rather than force stations to jump through hoops to reschedule preempted E/I programs.”

On public file requirements, Sinclair stated: “Given the lack of public demand or need for these documents, many public file obligations serve only as enforcement action fodder at license renewal time if anything is missing or late. Because paperwork shouldn’t exist for its own sake, Sinclair respectfully requests that the Commission delete Section 73.3526 in its entirety.”

The company’s EVP and Chief Legal Officer David Gibber, along with external counsel, signed the comments stating that current regulations threaten “the future viability of many stations and local news” by “obstructing TV broadcasters’ ability to operate and compete at scale.”

Competition from tech giants

Sinclair highlighted the disparity in market power, noting that “analysts estimate that if YouTube were a standalone business, it would be worth $475 billion to $550 billion – far more than the entire local broadcast industry combined.”

The filing also pointed out that “Google’s, Meta’s, and Amazon’s annual U.S. advertising revenues each exceed the ad revenues of the entire local broadcast industry combined, and the combined share of global advertising revenues of these 3 companies hit 51% in 2024.”