ABC can beat Trump FCC’s license threat if owner Disney is willing to fight

President-elect Donald Trump speaks to Brendan Carr, his intended pick for Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, as he attends a SpaceX Starship rocket launch on November 19, 2024 in Brownsville, Texas. Credit: Getty Images | Brandon Bell

Disney will have the law on its side in its fight against the unusual broadcast license review ordered yesterday by the Federal Communications Commission, legal experts say.

In 1996, Congress made it a lot harder for the FCC to take away a broadcast license, even when it’s up for renewal. “Since the NAB [National Association of Broadcasters] got an amendment in the 1996 Telecommunications Act, denying renewal to a broadcaster faces an almost insurmountable burden,” Andrew Jay Schwartzman, senior counselor of the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society, told Ars this week.

The Telecommunications Act of 1996 was a major update to the Communications Act, the 1934 law that established the FCC ...