US agency ends 39% household cap on local TV station owners • Hacker News Board

Re: US agency ends 39% household cap on local TV station owners

#21

Post by laughing_man » Fri, Aug 07, 2026, 8:32 AM UTC

x______________ wrote: post #19

laughing_man wrote: post #17

Does it really matter anymore? How many people get their news and entertainment from local TV stations?

>Does it really matter anymore? If it didnt matter, they wouldn't be changing the rules to consolidate power.

Is that what's going on, though, or is it just that with fewer viewers the industry needs consolidation?

Re: US agency ends 39% household cap on local TV station owners

#22

Post by mapt » Fri, Aug 07, 2026, 1:38 PM UTC

alrtd82 wrote: post #2

Brendan Carr is a dummy (TM)

Why yes, I also believe this action was solely a result of one administrator's low intelligence, and not any kind of concerted campaign to take over my country through media channels. Such a campaign is literally unthinkable to me, despite illustrative worked examples of an all-right-wing media landscape in the UK and Russia, agents of the administration bragging about their ability to control media, demanding tithes from media, banning media from their events, threatening to throw media in prison, or executing hostile takeovers of non-local-TV media with their billions of dollars.

Re: US agency ends 39% household cap on local TV station owners

#23

Post by conception » Fri, Aug 07, 2026, 2:22 PM UTC

nixon_why69 wrote: post #15

0xy wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seems totally legit! Harris+Biden spent $770M on TV ads while Trump spent $350M. How about 2016? Clinton spent $400M on TV ads while Trump spent $125M. How'd that go for them? Really seeing those double digit improvements.

Different campaigns, you're comparing a presidential general election to a senate primary. You're also ignoring superpacs in those presidential runs. You know how many NRA sponsored ads about "her emails" I saw in 2016? TV is far less dead than often assumed.

Also ignoring how much other nation states spend on them.

Re: US agency ends 39% household cap on local TV station owners

#24

Post by x______________ » Fri, Aug 07, 2026, 2:57 PM UTC

laughing_man wrote: post #21

x______________ wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Does it really matter anymore? If it didnt matter, they wouldn't be changing the rules to consolidate power.

Is that what's going on, though, or is it just that with fewer viewers the industry needs consolidation?

Here's a clip from John Oliver[0] from 2017 explaining a bit on the situation. While viewership is declining, I dont think it's the main reason with the overall system changing its rules to allow fewer people to control it.

0 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GvtNyOzGogc