General Discussion

MrWowWow

(1,366 posts) Fri Sep 19, 2025, 10:21 PM Sep 19

ABC Has NO FCC License!

Last edited Fri Sep 19, 2025, 11:17 PM - Edit history (2)

How many more posts do I have to make about this to make this clear?Stations are FCC- licensed. Broadcasting networks are not. This is important when it comes to broadcasting law. It is important to understand the legal distinction. This distinction is going to be important if Kimmel decides to sue the FCC.

Now, ABC itself does not hold a broadcast license. In the United States, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) issues broadcast licenses only to local television and radio stations, not to national networks.

Here’s how it works:

ABC is a national television network (owned by The Walt Disney Company).

Local ABC-affiliated stations (like WABC in New York, KABC in Los Angeles, WLS in Chicago, etc.) hold individual FCC broadcast licenses.

Those stations agree to carry ABC’s programming under affiliation agreements.

So, while ABC the network has no FCC license, its affiliated local stations do, and that is how ABC programming reaches the public over the air.

22 replies

= new reply since forum marked as read

Highlight:

ABC Has NO FCC License! (Original Post) MrWowWow Sep 19 OP

Yes but it may represent a distinction without a difference given local networks were rebelling... hlthe2b Sep 19 #1

There's a huge difference. Wiz Imp Sep 20 #10

Not in ultimate outcome....And that is what this corrupt as hell FCC head is counting on. hlthe2b Sep 20 #17

you're just a fountain of knowledge CatWoman Sep 19 #2

*SNORT* Skittles Sep 19 #5

It does for the 8 tv stations it owns outright. Sneederbunk Sep 19 #3

You are exactly right that networks are not licensed. rsdsharp Sep 19 #4

Pedantically true but misleading. DISNEY directly owns eight stations, mostly in major markets. RockRaven Sep 19 #6

CBS owns 15, NBC owns 12. LeftInTX Sep 19 #7

Exactly. KABC TV in LA is owned by ABC/Disney. LA is a huge TV market. SunSeeker Sep 20 #14

Yes, but many OTA ABC-affiliated stations are owned by Disney and Sinclair. PSPS Sep 19 #8

Um, Disney/ABC owns just 8 stations Wiz Imp Sep 20 #11

The affiliate stations ABC/Disney owns are major stations in huge markets, like KABC TV in here in Los Angeles. SunSeeker Sep 20 #15

Sinclair squealed the loudest PSPS Sep 20 #18

Sinclair owns just 38 ABC stations that represents just 15% of ABC's total affiliates Wiz Imp Sep 20 #20

Hardly PSPS Sep 20 #21

Hardly yourself. Sinclair's AC stations are almost all in very small media markets Wiz Imp Sep 20 #22

He's going to get away with everything he wants. usonian Sep 19 #9

I remember when Michael Richards was pretty much blacklisted after making racist comments in 2006 at a comedy club MichMan Sep 20 #12

The government did not pressure that he be blacklisted. Huge difference. SunSeeker Sep 20 #13

Those comments were outrageous. usonian Sep 20 #16

The networks do directly own several stations each, in the largest markets, so it does matter themaguffin Sep 20 #19

hlthe2b

(111,459 posts)

1. Yes but it may represent a distinction without a difference given local networks were rebelling...

Reply to MrWowWow (Original post)

Fri Sep 19, 2025, 10:25 PM

Sep 19

and their licenses COULD be at risk...

ABC needs to join CBS and NBC and take this all the way through the courts to SCOTUS

Wiz Imp

(7,501 posts)

10. There's a huge difference.

Reply to hlthe2b (Reply #1)

Sat Sep 20, 2025, 12:06 AM

Sep 20

hlthe2b

(111,459 posts)

17. Not in ultimate outcome....And that is what this corrupt as hell FCC head is counting on.

Reply to hlthe2b (Reply #1)

Sat Sep 20, 2025, 06:17 AM

Sep 20

When you have the likes of Sinclair and Nexstar owning the largest chunk of local network affiliates across the country, they DO have that kind of reach, risk, and ability to directly impact the network. It is a damned monopoly that needs to be overturned by Congress. But first, this corrupt administration needs to face major legal repercussions, and if recent similar case decisions on free speech continue, SCOTUS will be a 9:0 decision.

CatWoman

(80,156 posts)

2. you're just a fountain of knowledge

Reply to MrWowWow (Original post)

Fri Sep 19, 2025, 10:25 PM

Sep 19

thank you

Skittles

(167,709 posts)

5. *SNORT*

Reply to CatWoman (Reply #2)

Fri Sep 19, 2025, 10:37 PM

Sep 19

Sneederbunk

(16,825 posts)

3. It does for the 8 tv stations it owns outright.

Reply to MrWowWow (Original post)

Fri Sep 19, 2025, 10:33 PM

Sep 19

rsdsharp

(11,350 posts)

4. You are exactly right that networks are not licensed.

Reply to MrWowWow (Original post)

Fri Sep 19, 2025, 10:37 PM

Sep 19

The three stations you mentioned are, however, all network O & Os. They’re are owned by ABC Owned Television Stations, a division of Disney Entertainment Television, which is part of The Walt Disney Company.

All are major market stations whose licenses are worth millions, and necessary to compete in those markets. If Trump goes after them, ABC will fight. God knows what SCOTUS. will do, but the lower courts will recognize that trying to revoke a license due to criticism of Trump is a gross First Amendment violation.

RockRaven

(18,063 posts)

6. Pedantically true but misleading. DISNEY directly owns eight stations, mostly in major markets.

Reply to MrWowWow (Original post)

Fri Sep 19, 2025, 10:40 PM

Sep 19

"ABC Owned Television Stations" is a division of "Disney Entertainment Television" which is a division of "Disney Entertainment" which is a division of "The Walt Disney Company," the current name of the company listed on stock exchanges and generally called Disney.

ABC is also a division of Disney Entertainment Television, so ABC does not directly own any stations, the stations are merely owned by a sibling division of the same parent company.

Fresno
Los Angeles
SF Bay Area
Chicago
NYC
Durham-Raleigh-Fayetteville
Philly
Houston
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/ABC_Owned_Television_Stations

LeftInTX

(34,006 posts)

7. CBS owns 15, NBC owns 12.

Reply to RockRaven (Reply #6)

Fri Sep 19, 2025, 10:48 PM

Sep 19

SunSeeker

(56,773 posts)

14. Exactly. KABC TV in LA is owned by ABC/Disney. LA is a huge TV market.

Reply to RockRaven (Reply #6)

Sat Sep 20, 2025, 12:42 AM

Sep 20

PSPS

(14,955 posts)

8. Yes, but many OTA ABC-affiliated stations are owned by Disney and Sinclair.

Reply to MrWowWow (Original post)

Fri Sep 19, 2025, 10:50 PM

Sep 19

They are the ones whose licenses could be revoked by trump's stooge Carr.

Wiz Imp

(7,501 posts)

11. Um, Disney/ABC owns just 8 stations

Reply to PSPS (Reply #8)

Sat Sep 20, 2025, 12:10 AM

Sep 20

Trump can try to pull licenses but he will almost certainly fail.

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2025/sep/18/brendan-carr-fcc-jimmy-kimmel

Tom Wheeler, a former FCC chair appointed by President Barack Obama, said Carr is “incredibly bright” and savvy about using the broad latitude given to the chairman, “exploiting the vagaries in the term ‘the public interest’”. Instead of the deregulation Trump promised voters, the administration “delivered this kind of micromanagement”, Wheeler said. “It’s not the appropriate job of the FCC chairman to become the censor-in-chief,” Wheeler said.

The lone Democrat on the FCC, Anna Gomez, criticized Carr for “using the weight of government power to suppress lawful expression”. Gomez called ABC’s decision “a shameful show of cowardly corporate capitulation” that threatened the first amendment, and said the FCC was operating beyond its authority and outside the bounds of the constitution.

“If it were to take the unprecedented step of trying to revoke broadcast licenses, which are held by local stations rather than national networks, it would run headlong into the first amendment and fail in court on both the facts and the law,” Gomez wrote in a statement. “But even the threat to revoke a license is no small matter. It poses an existential risk to a broadcaster, which by definition cannot exist without its license. That makes billion-dollar companies with pending business before the agency all the more vulnerable to pressure to bend to the government’s ideological demands.”

SunSeeker

(56,773 posts)

15. The affiliate stations ABC/Disney owns are major stations in huge markets, like KABC TV in here in Los Angeles.

Reply to Wiz Imp (Reply #11)

Sat Sep 20, 2025, 01:11 AM

Sep 20

KABC-TV in Los Angeles is owned and operated by the ABC Owned Television Stations division, which is a subsidiary of the Walt Disney Company. KABC-TV is the West Coast flagship station of the ABC network.

Maybe ABC can afford to fight the FCC's license revocation all of the way to the Supreme Court, but the smaller affiliates can't, or in the case of the affiliates owned by Sinclair and NexStar, won't. So ABC could end up with only 8 stations to air its programming. ABC would not be viable if that happened.

Plus, ABC is afraid to be on the wrong side of Trump's FCC because, like NexStar, they have pending mergers before the FCC, and the FCC could retaliate by denying those mergers. Retaliation would be really hard to prove, since the mergers really should be denied regardless in this increasingly monopolistic media environment. But if ABC bends the knee, they will be able to take advantage of the Trump administration's corruption and get their monopolistic mergers approved.

PSPS

(14,955 posts)

18. Sinclair squealed the loudest

Reply to Wiz Imp (Reply #11)

Sat Sep 20, 2025, 08:41 AM

Sep 20

Remember Sinclair is the RW media conglomerate that, after going on a buying spree of ABC OTA affiliates, compelled all of their on-air news talent to read the same script full of RW talking points. They are a big trump promoter. If they squawk, ABC listens since their affiliation would be in jeopardy.

From 2018:
Sinclair Broadcast Group Forces Nearly 200 Station Anchors To Read Same Script

Wiz Imp

(7,501 posts)

20. Sinclair owns just 38 ABC stations that represents just 15% of ABC's total affiliates

Reply to PSPS (Reply #18)

Sat Sep 20, 2025, 08:59 AM

Sep 20

Sinclair needs ABC much more than ABC needs Sinclair.

PSPS

(14,955 posts)

21. Hardly

Reply to Wiz Imp (Reply #20)

Sat Sep 20, 2025, 10:24 AM

Sep 20

If ABC loses even 15% of its viewership, it will devastate their ad revenue. Sinclair is super MAGA and they they'll gladly take the hit for the MAGA team.

Wiz Imp

(7,501 posts)

22. Hardly yourself. Sinclair's AC stations are almost all in very small media markets

Reply to PSPS (Reply #21)

Sat Sep 20, 2025, 11:27 AM

Sep 20

They cover only 1 of the 10 largest markets (#8), 2 of the top 20, and 4 of the top 30 markets.
Sinclair's ABC stations reach only about 6% of the total US population. I'd venture to guess that they represent under 5% of ABC's total viewership. ABC will already lose significant advertising revenue due to the backlash over Jimmy Kimmel. The could survive losing the Sinclair affiliates quite easily.

Sinclair stations need the affiliate agreements to survive. The networks like ABC can always sign agreements with new affiliates.

usonian

(20,841 posts)

9. He's going to get away with everything he wants.

Reply to MrWowWow (Original post)

Fri Sep 19, 2025, 11:04 PM

Sep 19

Until ...

MichMan

(15,995 posts)

12. I remember when Michael Richards was pretty much blacklisted after making racist comments in 2006 at a comedy club

Reply to usonian (Reply #9)

Sat Sep 20, 2025, 12:26 AM

Sep 20

SunSeeker

(56,773 posts)

13. The government did not pressure that he be blacklisted. Huge difference.

Reply to MichMan (Reply #12)

Sat Sep 20, 2025, 12:35 AM

Sep 20

It was not a 1st Amendment violation.

usonian

(20,841 posts)

16. Those comments were outrageous.

Reply to MichMan (Reply #12)

Sat Sep 20, 2025, 01:15 AM

Sep 20

I found this article on the Seinfeld actors who have passed away.
https://www.looper.com/357934/seinfeld-actors-you-may-not-know-passed-away/

I've been to Las Vegas a few times (My wife made me do it. ) and Jerry was frequently there.
Seems appropriate. What an ass. A nice match for the Ass Man.

The following Costanza quote is so applicable these days (unfortunately)

themaguffin

(4,691 posts)

19. The networks do directly own several stations each, in the largest markets, so it does matter

Reply to MrWowWow (Original post)

Sat Sep 20, 2025, 08:43 AM

Sep 20

Reply to this discussion