The Federal Communications Commission ruled Sept. 29 that DISH Network cannot be forced to carry a Georgia-licensed television station in two media markets at once, reversing a 2024 precedent set under former Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel.

In a unanimous decision (FCC-26-68A1), the three voting commissioners granted DISH's appeal and overturned an earlier Media Bureau order involving WGBP-TV. The station holds a license for Opelika, Alabama, which sits inside the Columbus, Georgia Designated Market Area. Nielsen later reassigned WGBP to the Atlanta DMA after the station converted to a distributed transmission system.

What did the FCC actually decide?

The Commission ruled that a station's "local market" under must-carry law consists of a single Nielsen-determined DMA plus the county where the station is licensed, even if that county falls in a different DMA. "There is nothing in the statute that suggests that a station may demand carriage throughout more than one DMA simultaneously," the order stated.

The decision also clarifies how carriage obligations attach when a station's signal reaches into a market beyond its license footprint. The scenario has grown more common as broadcasters deploy distributed transmission system (DTS) networks to extend geographic reach without seeking new licenses in every adjacent market.

Why does this case matter?

The ruling scraps a 2024 Rosenworcel-era reading that broadcasters argued entitled them to carriage in any DMA where they held a transmitter. DISH pushed back against that interpretation, claiming it would force the satellite provider to dedicate capacity to duplicative local stations and undermine the bounded nature of must-carry rights.

WGBP-TV's transition to a distributed transmission system triggered the original fight. After Nielsen moved WGBP to Atlanta, the station sought must-carry status in both the Columbus and Atlanta markets simultaneously. The Media Bureau initially sided with WGBP, prompting DISH to escalate the matter to the full Commission.

What are the broader regulatory implications?

The decision signals that the current FCC will take a narrower view of must-carry rights than the Rosenworcel Commission. Broadcasters have used DTS deployments to argue for carriage in larger or higher-revenue markets, a strategy the new order now constrains.

The ruling could reverberate through retransmission consent talks, where local stations periodically demand compensation from pay-TV operators. By tying carriage to the license footprint rather than signal reach, the FCC has handed operators a clearer rulebook and broadcasters a smaller negotiating surface. Multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs) have long argued that duplicative carriage inflates bandwidth costs without delivering meaningful viewer benefit.

What happens next?

The ruling returns WGBP's carriage obligations to the single DMA where its license sits. EchoStar Corp., DISH's parent, has been reshaping its pay-TV business amid a multi-year subscriber decline and the wind-down of its Boost Mobile prepaid wireless unit. Charlie Ergen, who founded DISH Network in 1980 and now serves as EchoStar CEO, has not publicly commented on the WGBP case.

WGBP-TV's owner has not indicated whether it will seek further review in federal court. The station retains the right to pursue must-carry status in its home DMA under the order's narrower construction. Other broadcasters operating DTS networks will be watching closely as they plan transmitter builds over the next 12 to 24 months.