Company: IHETW
Filing Date: 2025-02-27
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0001400891-25-000009
Chunk: 22

Company: iHeartMedia, Inc.
Filing Date: 2025-02-27
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 1
Chunk 22
---
, of which no more than three are in the same service, so long as the entity does not have an interest in more than 50 percent of all stations in the market. To apply these ownership tiers, the FCC relies on Nielsen Metro Survey Areas, where they exist, and a signal contour‑overlap methodology elsewhere.

The Communications Act requires the FCC to review its media ownership rules every four years, and those reviews 

10

have been and continue to be the subject of regulatory proceedings and litigation. On December 26, 2023 the FCC issued an order resolving the 2018 quadrennial review. In that order, the FCC decided to retain the numerical limits on local radio ownership intact and to make permanent the signal contour‑overlap methodology that had applied on an interim basis in markets outside of Nielsen Metro Survey Areas. The order is the subject of various pending appeals.

In addition, in December 2022, the FCC commenced the 2022 quadrennial review of its broadcast ownership rules. Among other things, the FCC is seeking comment on all aspects of the local radio ownership rule including whether the current version of the rule remains necessary in the public interest. We cannot predict the outcome of the FCC’s media ownership proceedings or their effects on our business in the future.

Irrespective of the FCC’s media ownership rules, the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) and the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) have the authority to determine that a particular transaction presents antitrust concerns. See “Item 1. Business – Antitrust and Market Concentration Considerations.”

Alien Ownership Restrictions

The Communications Act and FCC regulations prohibit foreign entities or individuals from indirectly (i.e., through a parent company) owning or voting more than 25 percent of the equity in a corporation controlling the licensee of a radio broadcast station, unless the FCC determines that greater indirect foreign ownership is in the public interest. The FCC generally will not make such a determination absent favorable executive branch review. 

  To the extent that our aggregate foreign ownership or voting percentage exceeds 25 percent, any foreign holder or “group” of holders, defined pursuant to FCC regulations, of our common stock whose ownership or voting percentage would exceed 5 percent or 10 percent (with the applicable percentage determined pursuant to FCC rules) must also obtain the FCC’s specific approval. 

Programming and Content Regulation

The Communications Act requires broadcasters to serve the “public interest.” A licensee must present programming that responds to issues in the station’s