Regulators Tighten TV-Station Ownership Curb by Cutting Discount
- Move opposed by broadcasters including Fox and Sinclair
- FCC says groups needn’t sell stations as result of change
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Federal regulators tightened limits on owning television stations by eliminating the practice of only counting part of some stations’ audience, a move opposed by broadcasters including 21st Century Fox Inc. and Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc.
The Federal Communications Commission in a 3-to-2 Democratic-led party-line vote on Wednesday abolished the 30-year-old UHF discount. Under the eliminated discount, the agency counted only half of households in a TV station’s local area, when judging ownership against the limit of reaching 39 percent of U.S. TV households.