ABC Ad Campaign Urges Support in Fight With FCC Over The View

As ABC faces multiple proceedings in front of the Federal Communications Commission, led by chairman Brendan Carr, the network is going public in a major way, launching a campaign that will urge viewers to support it in its fight with the regulator.

The campaign, which is debuting its first spots during The View today and will run across the network’s owned and operated station footprint on Monday, include a spot urging View fans to weigh in on the investigation related to whether the show qualifies as a “bona fide” news program, and a spot focused on each local station, given the FCC‘s move to review their broadcast licenses. The spots will also run on digital platforms.

“The View has welcomes your favorite guests for nearly 30 years. Now the FCC wants to control who is allowed to appear on the show. Tell the FCC to let the viewers decide,” the View spot states, notably opening with a clip featuring the legendary broadcast journalist and The View creator Barbara Walters.

Watch:

“ABC7 has proudly served the New York area for more than 75 years. Now the FCC is questioning our commitment to viewers by threatening to take us off the air. Use your voice and tell the FCC that new York deserves to keep its trusted local station WABC,” an example of the other spot states.

Watch:

In addition to WABC, similar spots will run on KABC-TV Los Angeles, CA; WLS-TV Chicago, IL; WPVI-TV Philadelphia, PA; KTRK-TV Houston, TX; KGO-TV San Francisco, CA; WTVD-TV Raleigh-Durham, NC; KFSN-TV Fresno, CA.

The campaign marks a major public escalation in the otherwise wonky battle between a federal regulator that is typically out of the spotlight and a major broadcast network. The spots urging public action more closely resemble a cable TV carriage fight, but the stakes in this case are much higher, given the FCC’s threat to revoke ABC’s broadcast licenses.

While media watchers may be aware of the FCC proceedings, many typical TV viewers may not be, hence the public campaign.

While the two proceedings are technically different, ABC argues that they are both being waged as part of an effort to suppress the network’s speech, citing the First Amendment in its arguments against them. The View investigation stems from a move by the FCC to reclassify what qualifies as “bona fide” news programs that are exempt from equal time rules. The rule change suggests that late night talk shows like The Tonight Show and Jimmy Kimmel Live!, as well as daytime panel shows like The View, should not qualify, despite having done so for decades.

An appearance by Texas Senate hopeful James Talarico sparked the investigation, given his active primary campaign. The show, it should be noted, did book Vice President JD Vance last week. The comments on the View proceeding are due July 6.

The broadcast licenses are technically about an ongoing investigation into Disney’s DEI practices, though ABC rejected those claims when it filed its license renewals “under protest” last month. Comments on that proceeding are due July 29.

“Simultaneously forcing every station in a media company’s portfolio to file premature license renewal applications is not a regulatory tool,” the filing stated. “It is an extraordinary demonstration of power and coercion directed at disfavored editorial voices, which sends a clear warning to every broadcaster in America. This is a threat to the First Amendment that this Commission and this proceeding must not be permitted to normalize.”

Now ABC is leveraging its viewers to help mobilize against that threat.