Broadcasters Talk Tariffs and Deregulation at Nearly FCC-less NAB Show 2025

“I don’t need to tell any of you that this is a tremendously disruptive time in our local economies, certainly in our politics, in our geopolitics,” NAB CEO Curtis LeGeyt said in a speech Saturday to local radio broadcasters, referencing the recent introduction of widespread tariffs on imports. “We’re all navigating it; this show is navigating it.”

He said Monday that NAB was expecting about 60,000 attendees at the show. In brief remarks, which didn’t mention the FCC or broadcast regulation, LeGeyt said NAB was headed toward a “new chapter” where “storytelling meets scale.” “With so much disruption happening across our media and geopolitical landscapes, I am grateful we can gather this week to chart our industry’s path forward. “

The trade group announced a minimalist logo during LeGeyt’s address Monday. “It’s a symbol of the dynamic and ever-evolving roles of broadcast, technology, entertainment and media,” said Karen Chupka, NAB's managing director-global connection and events. The logo “is a bold step forward” that shows broadcasters “are constantly evolving.”

During an interview Sunday, Gray Media co-CEO Pat LaPlatney said “we’re in the early innings of a tariff war,” adding, “We don’t really know how it's going to play out, but we are cautiously optimistic.” BIA Advisory Services Managing Director Rick Ducey said he's still working out how tariffs affect his broadcast advertising forecasts, and any predictions now should be taken with “large grains of salt.” “What happens if the tariff war continues? What happens if it gets negotiated and businesses can kind of factor it in?” he asked.

The recent tariffs are widely seen as likely to slow ad spending, but broadcasters said they expect that to be more of an issue for the few companies that depend more on national rather than local advertising. Industries such as auto sales and home improvement and their corresponding ad budgets are likely to be heavily affected, said S&P Global analyst Justin Nielson. “Large-ticket items” will be affected more than the services that are the bulk of local advertising, he said in a session Saturday on small and medium radio markets.

Broadcasters and broadcast attorneys at NAB Show 2025 told us they saw President Donald Trump’s FCC and DOJ as creating a rare and potentially brief window for a wave of media consolidation. While it’s not clear what precise form that deregulation will take, companies at the show are lining up deals to take advantage of an anticipated removal of the TV national ownership cap and local station limits, numerous broadcast attorneys told us. While the national cap is more of a factor for the nation’s largest broadcasters, smaller companies also told us they were looking forward to ownership deregulation. Robert McAllan, owner of New Jersey-based Press Communications, told us that he would look to grow his company if rules were relaxed but could also benefit because deregulation could create new opportunities to sell stations. He said that while he previously opposed broadcast consolidation, the competition that stations face “has changed dramatically” due to online platforms. “Radio doesn’t have the size to work against them competitively.”

A wave of deregulation is likely to provide a bigger boost to dealmaking in the TV realm than radio, Nielson said. “I think there’s going to be consolidation in some [radio] markets if there’s deregulation, but it's probably not going to be the wide swaths that you’ve seen in the past,” he said, comparing the current radio market to the wave of radio consolidation in the early 2000s. Scott Schroeder, CEO of Florida AM broadcaster Miracle Radio, told us that the radio industry “has been a struggle” since COVID-19 slumps in advertising and audience, and he likely wouldn’t buy another station in the current environment.

FCC Chairman Brendan Carr’s deregulatory focus appears to be on TV, Nielson said. With the FCC already authorizing duopolies in some markets, there's clear “momentum” toward deregulation for TV station owners, he said.

NAB Show 2025 will likely end up having the smallest FCC presence in memory, broadcasters and broadcast attorneys told us. Carr isn’t attending due to a conflict, and his office declined official travel requests from Gomez and Commissioner Nathan Simington late in the show's planning process. As of late Friday afternoon, Simington was still expected to attend, but the chairman’s office ultimately denied permission due to a White House ban on agency travel, FCC officials said. Gomez is expected to appear at the show Monday afternoon, flying at her own expense.

The White House ban on agency travel also led to the cancellation of an annual session where broadcasters get to speak directly with senior Media Bureau staff. Each year, that session allowed broadcasters to surface concerns and air issues that might not ordinarily come to the FCC’s attention and to let bureau staff better explain their policies. “They should be here,” Schroeder said. The 2025 show is the second in a row that the FCC chair has skipped. Before FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel missed the 2024 event, the last time an FCC chair didn’t address the show was 2009, excepting those canceled because of the pandemic in 2020 and 2021. “We wish the chairman was here, but if he can’t make it, he can’t make it,” LaPlatney told us. NAB didn’t comment on the FCC’s absence.

NAB Show Notebook

The return of professional sports to broadcasting is likely to lead to higher retransmission consent rates for companies airing games, said LaPlatney and E.W. Scripps’ Brian Lawlor, who's president of Scripps Sports, in a TVNewsCheck panel Sunday. “These are becoming some of the most-watched programs and stations in the local markets,” Lawlor said. “I think they certainly have value.” The regional sports network model that had been the dominant method for airing games was funded by distribution fees, he pointed out. Live sports like baseball “are the highest rated stuff outside the NFL, right?” LaPlatney said. “That’s something worth paying for."

Carr’s plans to take aim at Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act have implications for broadcasters as well as tech companies, said panelists at the American Bar Association’s Representing Your Local Broadcaster event Saturday. The dissolution of Section 230 protections would mean more liability risk and might require additional expenditure on content moderation for broadcaster websites, said attorney Sekoia Rogers Diggs. Fletcher Heald broadcast attorney Seth Williams said there's “a wide range of awareness” among broadcasters on this issue, and even the smallest broadcasters generally have a digital footprint that could be affected. Cooley attorney and former FCC Enforcement Bureau Chief Travis LeBlanc said that in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision doing away with Chevron deference, FCC action on 230 is unlikely to survive legal challenge.

ESPN personality Stephen A. Smith said Monday he's open to running for president. During an interview on the NAB Show’s main stage, he said, “I have no desire to be a politician, my life is pretty well. But I’ve decided I no longer will close that door. I’m going to keep my options open.” He said he has been approached by lawmakers about running, and his ubiquitous media presence and experience arguing on TV would make him a formidable candidate.