FCC orders expedited review of eight ABC broadcast station licenses

FCC Chair Brendan Carr orders all eight ABC-owned television stations to file for early license renewal within 30 days, triggering a formal regulatory review process. The stations — in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Houston, San Francisco, Raleigh, and Fresno — hold licenses that Disney needs to operate its broadcast television network. Carr cites the network''s DEI hiring practices as the official basis for the review, not the Kimmel joke, though the timing makes the triggering incident clear. The action is the first FCC-ordered expedited license review targeting a specific broadcast network in the modern era. Disney and ABC face potential loss of the stations that anchor their broadcast business.