Disney faces FCC ruling on ABC licenses and 'The View' probe

The US Federal Communications Commission is nearing a ruling against Walt Disney Co. over its ABC television network, threatening the renewal of eight broadcast licenses and escalating a regulatory battle that pits the Trump administration against one of America's largest media companies.

"The Commission should decide this proceeding the way it would want the rule applied under any administration: by reaffirming that The View is a bona fide news interview program," ABC said in a court filing Monday, according to the New York Times. The network's parent company, Disney, argued that the First Amendment "does not permit the government to sit in an editor's chair."

The FCC has received an unprecedented 77,611 public comments regarding its investigation into whether ABC's daytime talk show "The View" violated the equal-time rule by interviewing Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico in February. The agency ruled in 2002 that the program qualifies as a news show and is therefore exempt from the requirement, a classification ABC says has not changed. Separately, the FCC in April requested early license renewal reviews for eight Disney-owned ABC stations — assessments not originally due until October 2028.

FCC Chairman Brendan Carr told CNBC on Friday that broadcast licenses are "not sacred cows" and described it as a "long putt" for Disney to retain its licenses if the company is deemed not to have operated in the public interest. Prediction markets show a 22 percent probability that the FCC will revoke a major network license by April 1, 2027, according to CNBC. A group of conservative organizations, including the Center for American Rights, has petitioned the agency to deny the license renewals, accusing the network of supporting the Chinese Communist Party and of racial, political and sexual bias.

The regulatory threat compounds existing pressures on Disney's media segment. The company paid $16 million in 2024 to settle a defamation lawsuit filed by President Donald Trump over comments made by anchor George Stephanopoulos. Disney also briefly suspended late-night host Jimmy Kimmel last year after government pressure, a decision it quickly reversed. The stock has declined 46.1 percent over the past five years, and trades at a price-to-earnings ratio of about 14.9 times — well below the entertainment industry average of 22.1 times, according to Simply Wall St data. A discounted cash flow model estimates Disney's intrinsic value at roughly $112.77 per share, about 14.7 percent above the current market price, suggesting the market is already discounting regulatory risk.

The FCC's actions represent the most direct regulatory challenge to a major US broadcast network in decades. If the agency rules against Disney, it could set a precedent allowing political scrutiny of programming decisions at other networks, potentially affecting the license renewals of stations owned by Comcast Corp.'s NBC, Paramount Global's CBS and Fox Corp. The last time the FCC denied a broadcast license renewal on content-related grounds was in 1970, when it revoked the license of a Mississippi television station for racist programming practices. A ruling is expected in the coming months, with no clear timeline for the separate license renewal proceedings.

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