Count Nexstar Chairman and CEO Perry Sook as a fan of incoming FCC Chairman Brendan Carr.
“Congratulations to Commissioner Brendan Carr on being named incoming Chairman at the FCC. He is an outstanding choice who understands the needs of local broadcasters and we look forward to working with him during this transformational era,” Sook said in a statement to press.
Carr has served as a member of the Federal Communications Commission since 2017. The Republican regulator is best known for his support in banning TikTok due to national security concerns and also as the author of the FCC section of Project 2025, a plan for Trump’s first 100 days in office his administration has said he has no involvement in. He is largely aligned with the incoming administration’s views on governmental communications oversight, including punishing TV networks for having a political bias, an issue that Donald Trump has spoken about repeatedly.
Sook and Nexstar’s interest in the appointee has more to do with Carr’s other policies, namely slashing regulation and limiting the technology industry in the space. These are two issues Nexstar has been outspoken about. At the moment, no one television station owner can cover more than 39% of U.S. television households, as defined by Nielsen research. That limitation is one that Nexstar is currently fighting based on the argument that this cap, which was implemented in 2004, is outdated. Now news stations aren’t just competing against their peers in the space; they’re competing against largely unregulated tech giants when it comes to news and entertainment. Nexstar has already created a government relations team in Washington D.C. to fight that market cap.
“We see this as a bipartisan issue,” Sook said during the company’s third quarter earnings call for 2024. “Republicans would see it as deregulation, so good for business. Democrats and, in fact, all people would see it as an avenue to preserve local journalism.”
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