Is Newsmax's Chris Ruddy Any Match for Nexstar's Perry Sook?
The FCC 'lacks authority and a compelling reason to change the rule,' Newsmax CEO Chris Ruddy said in an FCC filing yesterday.
39% Cap: A confidant of President Trump is causing trouble for Nexstar CEO Perry Sook. Sook needs the FCC to change a key ownership rule – the 39% cap – before he can acquire TEGNA’s 64 broadcast TV stations for $6.2 billion in cash and assumed debt. Many observers expect FCC Chairman Brendan Carr to accommodate Nexstar in keeping with his oft-stated interest in strengthening local TV stations to bring them more into economic balance with the ABC, NBC, CBS, and Fox networks.
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Not for the first time, Newsmax CEO Chris Ruddy, a conservative media owner and Trump pal for many years, is saying no to relaxing the 39% cap, which is the maximum percent of TV households one TV station owner may reach nationally. “The only thing the [FCC] will get if it alters the national television multiple ownership limit is a permanent injunction. The [FCC] lacks authority and a compelling reason to change the rule,” Ruddy said in an FCC filing yesterday. The 39% cap is attracting opposites. A progressive, anti-business group like Free Press, for instance, and Newsmax see eye-to-eye in asserting only Congress can change the 39% because it is statutory. (More after paywall.)
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