Meanwhile in creeping fascism news

In 2004, Congress limited the national reach of a television-group owner to 39 percent of U.S. homes. This limitation was put in place to keep the major networks, who are also station-group owners, from having too much control over local news.

This was actually an increase from the limit set by Ronald Reagan’s Federal Communications Commission, which first instituted the ownership cap in 1985 at 25 percent.

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But when Sinclair Broadcast Group proposed merging with Tribune Media in May 2017, it would have created a new company that reached 72 percent of all TV households in the U.S.

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The merger was dropped, but it is still too early to celebrate. Tribune is apparently for sale again.

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Sinclair was able to bid for Tribune and attempt to reach 72 percent of the country because in April 2017 the FCC re-instituted something called the UHF discount.

The UHF discount was an archaic regulatory rule that allowed television stations broadcasting on UHF frequencies to be counted at half their actual reach. In the past, this made sense, since UHF spectrum was considered to be inferior to VHF spectrum. Technology, however, has now made the rule obsolete because, since the 2009 transition to digital broadcasting, UHF signals are no longer inferior to VHF spectrum. In fact, UHF is now the preferred broadcasting frequency for digital television.

Shortly after the switch to digital—sometimes called the “DTV transition”—the FCC began a rulemaking to eliminate the UHF discount. According to the FCC, “the transition to DTV … undermine[d] the basis for the UHF discount” because it was “premised on the constraints of old technology.” The FCC formally eliminated it in 2016.

But then, inexplicably, the discount was restored in 2017—a move widely viewed as providing a loophole for Sinclair to skirt the ownership limit.

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Public interest groups immediately filed for a stay of the decision and appealed to the federal court in the District of Columbia, arguing that it should nix the new UHF discount as inappropriate and dishonest. In July, the court ruled that the petitioners did not have jurisdiction in the case, without discussing the merits of their arguments. For now, the UHF discount remains in place.

  Politico

State run television isn't necessary if you have a corporation like Sinclair that broadcasts state propaganda. ...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.