The Federal Communications Commission is moving toward a review of Disney’s broadcast licenses, according to people familiar with the matter, a maneuver that would up the pressure on the ABC owner as it faces fierce scrutiny from the administration — again — over a late night monologue.
The FCC may choose not to trigger that process, known as an early license review, some of the people said. But Chairman Brendan Carr has threatened Disney’s licenses before as recently as this month, when he criticized the company’s diversity programs. The FCC licenses ABC’s TV stations across the country to broadcast their programming over publicly owned airwaves.
“If the evidence does in fact play out and shows that they were engaged in race- and gender-based discrimination, that’s a very serious issue at the FCC, that could fundamentally go to their character qualifications to even hold a license,” Carr told Fox in April.
Disney shares slipped around 1% on the news in Tuesday morning trading.
President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump have both demanded that the broadcaster fire Jimmy Kimmel, the host of ABC’s eponymous late-night show, over a monologue he made two days before a gunman allegedly attempted to assassinate the president and top administration officials at the annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner, in which he said the first lady looked like “an expectant widow.”
Representatives for Disney and the FCC did not immediately respond to requests for comment, but a person familiar with the FCC’s thinking said the timing of a review wasn’t directly linked to the Kimmel monologue.