(Bloomberg) — Media executives see the possibility of more mergers and deregulation allowing the growth of broadcasting empires with the election of Republican Donald Trump as U.S. president.

Warner Bros. CEO Discovery Inc. David Zaslav suggested to investors Thursday that expedited completion of deals could help solve consumer problems, while Nexstar Media Group CEO Perry Sook laid out a vision for expanding the more major local TV station owner, aided by rule changes within a conservative Federal Communications Commission.

The new administration “could provide a pace of change and an opportunity for consolidation that could be very different,” Zaslav said during an earnings conference call. “It would have a really positive and accelerated impact on this industry, which is necessary.”

Media and telecom executives have begun to consider what a second Trump presidency could mean for a heavily regulated industry subject to enormous technological change as consumers abandon traditional television and turn to a multitude of media online. For Sook’s Nexstar, the “No. The first legislative priority is the deregulation of station ownership at the state and local levels. Among the rules he would like to see dismantled by the Trump administration is a national cap on the number of U.S. households a company can reach.

The FCC fined Nexstar $1.2 million in March for effectively maintaining control of a station that the agency had asked it to divest as a condition of its acquisition of Tribune Media in 2019, leaving it allowed the property limit to be exceeded nationally. A single broadcaster is not allowed to reach more than 39% of American households.

“The real competition in our industry comes from big tech companies that have unfunded access to every screen in America, from phones to desktops to living room televisions,” he said Thursday during a a conference call on the results. But companies like his are constrained by “regulations last updated in 2004”.

Sook also said reductions in corporate tax rates under Trump could lead companies to spend more on advertising.

Leniency toward broadcasters will be a very real side effect of the Trump administration, said Lee Petro, a partner at the Dickinson Wright law firm and former president of the Federal Communications Bar Association. Brendan Carr, the senior FCC Republican who wrote the FCC chapter of Trump’s unofficial transition plan, Project 2025, is expected to be named chairman of the agency, succeeding Democrat Jessica Rosenworcel.

“At the very least, we will see an increase in merger and acquisition deals going through the FCC that may not have been initiated during Chair Rosenworcel’s time,” Petro said.

Among the deals already subject to FCC regulatory review is Paramount Global’s planned merger with David Ellison’s Skydance Media. Ellison is the son of Trump supporter and Oracle Corp. co-founder and CEO Larry Ellison, who is helping finance the merger. DirecTV is merging with EchoStar Corp.’s Dish Network, bringing together the two largest satellite TV providers.

During the first Trump administration, the Justice Department unsuccessfully sued to block AT&T Inc.’s acquisition of what was then called Time Warner Inc. Now running the company known as name of Warner Bros. Discovery Inc., the parent company of CNN and streaming platform Max, Zaslav said the market was crying out for more streamlining.

“Consumers turn on a TV and see 16 apps and each of them has different prices,” Zaslav said. “It’s just not a good experience for the consumer.”

Bankers and lawyers also see Trump’s pro-business focus as a boon for deals, after President Joe Biden’s administration took a more restrictive view of deals seen as likely to concentrate corporate power and limit consumer choice.

An FCC guided by the Trump administration has the potential to reshape much more than just the broadcast and media landscape. In 2025, the FCC will also seek to roll back Rosenworcel’s push for federal broadband regulation, including regulations on net neutrality and digital discrimination, according to Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Matthew Schettenhelm.

The Democratic FCC’s net neutrality rules, currently being challenged in federal court, prohibit Internet service providers from blocking, speeding up, slowing down or giving paid priority to web traffic.

The digital discrimination regulations, enacted last November, aim to ensure people have access to consistent quality internet service, regardless of their income level, race, ethnicity, color, religion or origin. national. They allow the FCC to investigate complaints that service providers offer network services in ways that disproportionately affect disadvantaged communities and to hold companies liable regardless of their intent to discriminate.

A Republican-led FCC will also likely revive the first Trump administration’s push to integrate oversight of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act into the commission’s duties. The provision protects most major tech platforms from liability for the content they host on their platforms. Although the FCC does not regulate web platforms, Carr is a strong advocate for finding a way for the agency to do so.

Broadband for everyone

Internet service providers are also considering how the new administration could change the industry.

Chris Winfrey, CEO of Charter Communications Inc., the largest U.S. cable TV provider, sees low-cost broadband service for Americans as a key priority for the new president.

“We look forward to contributing to your efforts to provide the affordable internet service families need to achieve their American dream – including in the rural areas we are building now,” Winfrey said in a statement congratulating Trump on Wednesday.

Broadband funding will remain a hot topic following the end of the Affordable Connectivity Program, a Covid-era initiative that Congress failed to renew despite its bipartisan support. Improving the operation of the FCC’s current Universal Service Fund grant programs — or overhauling them entirely — will be a priority, said Jennifer Richter, who leads the telecommunications, media and technology practice at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld in Washington.

“Carr has already thought about this top-to-bottom review of regulations, to remove regulations that are outdated or overly burdensome,” she said.

The FCC’s broadcast license review cycle will begin under Trump’s term and it is unclear whether the new administration will seek to impose new conditions on broadcasters in order to retain their licenses.

Trump has been openly hostile to the mainstream media, which he calls “fake news.” He has made various threats against media companies, including CNN and the New York Times. After 60 Minutes interviewed Kamala Harris this fall, Trump sued his parent network CBS for $10 billion and threatened to revoke its broadcast license over concerns about how the article was edited.

In March, Trump sued ABC News and anchor George Stephanopoulos, alleging that his comments that Trump had been found responsible for rape, rather than sexual abuse, were defamatory. After ABC News hosted the presidential debate on September 10, he requested that the network revoke his broadcast license due to allegations of unfair fact-checking against him. He called for NBC, owned by Comcast Corp., to be investigated for “treason” over its coverage of his criminal cases.

“I don’t think any of us would be surprised if we were faced with very tough questions about whether over-the-air broadcast licensees have additional obligations regarding impartiality,” Petro said .

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