A ‘break glass moment’: How Washington can prevent a Big Tech takeover of local news

When wildfires spread, hurricanes hit or tornadoes tear through communities, local broadcasters are the first and most reliable source of emergency information. When decisions are made during local school board or city council meetings, local stations keep you informed. They provide the accountability for bad actors, and good news about our neighbors — informing our days and bringing us together.

Can you imagine your community without this local voice?

This is why people turn to their local TV and radio stations and trust them more than any other medium. But Big Tech companies could put them out of business thanks to inaction by Washington. Having all your local news and information filtered through TikTok in the future is a real possibility — unless policymakers act fast.

Local TV and radio broadcasting is at a dangerous juncture, and we need to grow, adapt and innovate in order to compete in today’s media landscape and serve our audiences. The government’s restrictions on station ownership were written decades ago and they make competing with Big Tech nearly impossible.

Media ownership restrictions were written for a time before the dawn of the internet, before tech giants controlled most of the content we see and before addictive, algorithmic social media took over attention spans.

At our core, local broadcasters offer real, relevant live content: news, weather, sports, local and civic information that is critical to American society and your local community. In that sense, we compete with Big Tech for the attention of Americans. We also compete with Big Tech for the advertising revenue that powers the newsrooms and weather centers at each local station.

Unfortunately, the Federal Communications Commission for decades has ignored these changes in the media landscape. As a result, local TV and radio station owners must abide by strangling regulations that restrict growth and competition. These limitations represent an existential threat to our industry, and I don’t use those words lightly.

Last year, the new chairman of the FCC, Brendan Carr, called this a “break glass moment,” as he implored the commission and Congress to act. I could not agree more.

The actions that local broadcasting needs to get a fair playing field are simple and attainable in short order with bold leadership from the FCC and support from Congress.

First, the FCC should eliminate the national audience reach cap. Presently, television station owners cannot serve more than 39 percent of American households. Imagine competing for advertisers with companies like YouTube or Amazon, who operate under no such restriction and reach 100 percent of Americans.

Second, the rules that govern both television and radio stations within a local area must be modernized. Current FCC rules largely prevent television broadcasters from owning two of the top four-rated broadcast stations in a media market. This ignores the vast competition broadcasters now face, from streaming platforms to social media giants. News is costly to produce, and stations invest big money to keep reporters in their local markets. Wouldn’t a community be better served by a pool of investment in two strong local newsrooms, rather than four under-resourced entities?

In local radio, broadcast owners are limited in the number of stations they offer their listeners within one market, while companies like Spotify and SiriusXM, can and do provide an unlimited variety of channels. The trade-off to receive those expanded programming options, an expensive subscription.

Without these changes, local broadcasting companies will disappear. That will cost jobs, have sweeping economic consequences in communities, but most concerning of all — it will be the end of trusted local journalism.

These days, local news is almost exclusively supported by local TV and radio broadcasters, and it is far more trusted by Americans than any other source.

Can we really afford to lose our most trusted source of news and live in a world where the information you get is filtered by Big Tech? It’s in Washington’s hands. To keep trusted local broadcasting in the consumer interest, the FCC must act.

Curtis LeGeyt Is the president and CEO of the National Broadcasters Association.

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