'Main Studio Rule' abolished in the US

The FCC has voted to scrap the 'Main Studio Rule', which requires US TV or radio stations to have a studio in their broadcast area:

https://radioinsight.com/headlines/120527/fcc-eliminates-main-studio-rule/

Too early to say what this will mean for local TV news, but it could be a game-changer. A group with stations in a number of markets could start broadcasting from a single hub, much like ITV Meridian used to do.

While I think it's highly unlikely that NBC, say, will start broadcasting all its O&Os' news output from New York, some things are bound to change. Sinclair was lobbying heavily for this, so safe to assume that they plan on taking advantage of it in some form.

Hmm. Affiliates might be impacted. Without a studio they may be forced to cut back jobs, resources etc.

Sinclair produces news for a few stations states away with just a few local reporters.

This could prove well for independent stations that produce no programming and they could be central casted or hubbed away. Essentially they just had to be able to put a camera on air which could be a conference room.




True for small market stations that probably aren’t highly rated - like the ones Sinclair is doing.

This means they can cut back on resources and jobs. It allows them to save money. They won’t be made to do it. As has been mentioned it’s already happened a large extent in the UK broadcast media.

I suspect that how this plays out will vary a lot between station owners.

There are massive economies of scale to be had - but, then again, the localness of a station's news operation often plays an enormous role in its brand. The local credentials of the presenters and reporters are regularly the subject of marketing campaigns.

I could see a station that decided to move its studio out of the area getting absolutely savaged in its competitors' marketing.

I should add during the recession some stations that had full power satellite stations in the dessert switched to low power translators to somewhat skirt the main studio rule. The markets in the dessert are huge and sometimes two or three full power satellites were needed to cover it (as it was at KOAT in Albuquerque. The initially shut one station down in 2007 that never went digital and the remaining two were done in 2012. The reason was they had to have a studio and the staff on hand for random FCC inspections or for the public to view the file. With new transmitters that don’t need a person physically there to operate them it made sense to cut back.

How would this affect emergency coverage?

The Spanish network Telemundo has done this in the past for its Texas stations where they would hub them from Dallas. This lasted until Comcast bought NBC Universal (which owns Telemundo) and introduced local news to the respective markets

One thing I'm not quite clear on is whether the main studio rule actually required broadcasters to use that studio for any of their output.

NYTV's Telemundo example would suggest not - and I know some stations in smaller markets simulcast the news output from stations in bigger ones nearby.

My sense is that the rule was more about enforcing a bricks-and-mortar and management presence in the market than locally-produced programming. Clearly the former can incentivise the latter, though.

Based on what happened here in the UK that seems a dangerous and rather foolish move, but on the other hand I think local news is viewed much differently in the US and generally considered profitable so hopefully most studios will justify themselves. Markets are also competitive so no station is going to want to move out of it's area when there are 2-3 more still based there.

Going by what happened to that station in Florida during the recent hurricane, it would have been better!

No the use of the studio was not required.