On the 15th Anniversary of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, The Effect on Broadcasters is Still Debated

[Commentary] On February 8, 1996, the Telecommunications Act of 1996 was signed into law by President Bill Clinton. While the Act had significant impact throughout the communications industry, the impact on broadcasters was profound, and is still being debated.

The Act made changes for broadcasters in several major areas:

• Lengthened license renewals to 8 years for both radio and TV, and eliminated the "comparative renewal"
• For radio, eliminated all national caps on the number of radio stations in which one party could have an attributable interest and increased to 8 stations the number one party could own in the largest radio markets
• For television, raised national ownership caps to having stations that reached no more than 35% of the national audience, with no limits on the number of stations that could be owned as long as their reach was under that cap.
• Allocated spectrum that resulted in the DTV transition

15 years, in terms of media technology and competition, seems like eons ago, though many of us remember these changes as if they were yesterday, which is perhaps why so many of the changes that occurred in 1996 are still being debated in today's FCC proceedings. It will be interesting to see how those debates shape the media going forward, and how they will be remembered in 2026.