Reps Pelosi, Pallone Urge Chairman Pai to Ditch UHF Discount's Return

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) joined with Commerce Committee Ranking Member Frank Pallone (D-NJ) to try and head off the reinstating of the UHF discount, saying its return by the Federal Communications Commission would be using a "blunt, illogical and anti-consumer instrument" to re-open a loophole to further consolidation.

Before the FCC eliminated it under former chairman Tom Wheeler in 2016 on a party line vote, the FCC had counted only half of a UHF TV station's audience reach toward the 39% cap on national reach by a TV station group owner. New FCC chairman Ajit Pai has scheduled a vote April 20 on bringing the discount back until the FCC looks more holistically at media ownership regulations, including whether that 39% cap should be raised if the discount is eliminated, something the Wheeler FCC did not do. The item is expected to pass with the support of fellow Republican Michael O'Rielly. The legislators, in a letter to the chairman, told him he would be restoring a loophole that would allow further concentration. The discount dates from when UHFs were the weaker signal vis a vis VHF, a situation that was reversed with the transition to DTV given UHF's better propagation characteristics in digital.