The FCC is going after the broadcast licenses of Disney-owned ABC stations

The Federal Communications Commission has ordered the ABC stations owned and operated by Disney to file for an early license renewal, as reported earlier by The New York Times. In a filing on Tuesday, the FCC claims it made the decision as part of an investigation into Disney’s policies on diversity, equity, and inclusivity (DEI).

The move comes just one day after President Donald Trump demanded ABC fire late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel, who called Melania Trump an “expectant widow” in a skit, ahead of the alleged assassination attempt at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.

Disney wasn’t set to renew its broadcast licenses until 2028, according to NBC News. The entertainment giant controls ABC stations in eight major markets, including Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Houston, and Philadelphia. Disney now has until May 28th to file license renewals for all of its ABC stations. Though the NYT notes that “it is extremely difficult for the government to take away stations’ rights to broadcast,” the FCC’s order marks a concerning escalation in its fight against Disney. If the FCC does block ABC’s broadcast license renewal, Disney would be able to challenge the decision in court while its TV stations continue broadcasting, the NYT reports.

“The FCC determines that calling in Disney’s ABC licenses for early renewal, at this time, under the Communications Act’s public interest standard is essential within the meaning of agency regulations,” the filing says. Disney didn’t immediately respond to The Verge’s request for comment.

Since Trump came into office in 2025, FCC Chair Brendan Carr has used his position to target broadcasters airing content that doesn’t align with the current administration. Last year, the FCC opened an investigation into Disney over Carr’s “concerns” that the company’s diversity, equity, and inclusivity (DEI) practices were “violating FCC equal employment opportunity regulations.” Carr later threatened to pull the broadcast licenses of stations that aired Jimmy Kimmel Live! after the late-night host commented on the man charged with killing Charlie Kirk. Disney took Jimmy Kimmel Live! off the air following Carr’s threat and reinstated the show days later.

Carr most recently threatened news stations for their coverage of the war in Iran and said “broadcasters must operate in the public interest, and they will lose their licenses if they do not.” The chairman later attempted to clarify his statement, claiming the agency doesn’t have plans to pull broadcast licenses, and that “the only thing we’ve ever talked about pulling broadcast licenses are for operators that aren’t operating in the public interest, that are doing broadcast hoax, news distortion.”

Carr is using the FCC’s News Distortion Policy as a basis for his claims, though the agency’s own website says broadcasters are only subject to enforcement “if it can be proven that they have deliberately distorted a factual news report.” Former FCC staffers are asking a federal appeals court to repeal the rule, calling Carr’s use of the policy an “abuse of regulatory power to shape voter perception and control information.”

Anna Gomez, the FCC’s only Democrat commissioner, called Carr’s challenge to Disney’s broadcast licenses the agency’s “most egregious attack on the First Amendment” so far. “This is an unprecedented and politically motivated attempt to interfere with how broadcasters operate, and this unlawful overreach will fail,” Gomez says. “This should be a lesson to media companies that no amount of capitulation to this Administration will buy them protection.”

Update, April 28th: Added Gomez’s response.