Company: GHC
Filing Date: 2025-02-26
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0000104889-25-000022
Chunk: 160

Company: Graham Holdings Co
Filing Date: 2025-02-26
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 1
Chunk 160
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. The current rules are significant to GMG stations as vMVPD subscriber numbers continue to increase. vMVPD YouTube TV is predicted to be the largest pay-TV provider by 2026, surpassing traditional facilities-based cable and satellite distributors.

The FCC has also considered proposals to alter its rules governing network non-duplication and syndicated exclusivity. More than 10 years ago, in March 2014, the FCC solicited comments on a proposal to eliminate its network non-duplication and syndicated exclusivity rules, which restrict the ability of cable operators, DBS systems and other distributors classified by the FCC as MVPDs to import the signals of out-of-market television stations with duplicate programming during retransmission consent disputes or otherwise. The FCC has not acted on that proposal. If Congress or the FCC were to enact further changes to the exclusivity rules, such changes could materially affect the GMG stations’ bargaining position in future retransmission consent negotiations.

Ownership Limits.  The Communications Act and the FCC’s rules limit the number and types of media outlets in which a single person or entity may have an attributable interest. The FCC is required by statute to review its media ownership rules (with the exception of the national television ownership rule, discussed below) every four years to determine whether those rules remain necessary in the public interest as a result of competition. This process is referred to as the quadrennial review. The media ownership rule most relevant to GMG is the local television ownership rule. The rule prohibits one broadcaster from owning (or having an attributable interest in) two full-power television stations licensed in the same Nielsen DMA if both of them are ranked among the top four stations in the market, unless the broadcaster can demonstrate to the FCC that the combination serves the public interest. Ownership of more than two, full-power television stations in a single market is generally prohibited. 

The Commission initiated the 2018 quadrennial review in December 2018 and completed it via a Report and Order dated December 26, 2023 (2023 Order). The 2023 Order largely retains the current local television ownership rule without significant substantive change, with one exception: going forward, the rule generally will prohibit a broadcaster from acquiring a second (or additional) top-four network affiliation and placing it on a station’s multicast stream or on a commonly owned low power television station in the same market. The 2023 Order exempts from this restriction ownership of two or more top-four network affiliations resulting from organic growth of a