(Bloomberg) — Media executives see the possibility of more mergers and deregulations to grow broadcast and television empires with the election of Republican Donald Trump to the U.S. presidency.

The chief executive of Warner Bros. Discovery Inc.’s David Zaslav suggested to investors Thursday that speeding up deals could help solve consumer problems, while Nexstar Media Group CEO Perry Sook laid out a vision for expanding the largest owner of local TV stations, helped by rule changes at a conservative federal communications commission.

The new administration “could provide a pace of change and an opportunity for consolidation that may be quite different,” Zaslav said on an earnings call. “This would provide a real positive and accelerated impact on this industry that is needed.”

Media and telecommunications executives have begun to consider what a second Trump presidency could mean for an industry that is heavily regulated and undergoing enormous technological change as consumers move from traditional TV viewing to a range of stores online. For Sook’s Nexstar, “No. 1 legislative priority’ is the deregulation of station ownership at the national and local level. Among the rules the Trump administration would like to see abolished is a national cap on the number of US households a company can reach.

The FCC fined Nexstar $1.2 million in March for effectively maintaining control of a station that the agency required it to divest as a condition of its 2019 purchase of Tribune Media, which exceeded the nationwide ownership limit. A single broadcaster is not allowed to reach more than 39% of US households.

“Our industry’s real competition comes from the big tech companies that have unfunded access to every screen in America, from phones to desktops to the living room TV,” he said in an earnings call Thursday. But corporations like his are constrained by “regulations that were last updated in 2004.”

Sook also said the cut in corporate tax rates under Trump could prompt companies to spend more on advertising.

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

“At the very least, we will see an increase in M&A transactions through the FCC that may not have been brought forward under Chairman Rosenworcel,” Petro said.

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

During the first Trump administration, the Justice Department unsuccessfully sued to block the acquisition by AT&T Inc. of what was then called Time Warner Inc. He now runs the business known as Warner Bros. Discovery Inc., parent of CNN and streaming platform Max, Zaslav said the market is crying out for more streamlining.

“Consumers put on a TV and see 16 apps, and each one of them is charging different prices,” Zaslav said. “It’s not a good experience for consumers.”

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 having the potential to concentrate corporate power and limit consumer choice .

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

The FCC’s democracy net neutrality rules, currently litigated in federal court, prohibit ISPs from blocking, throttling, slowing down or giving paid priority to web traffic.

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

A Republican-led FCC would also revive the first Trump administration’s effort to turn oversight of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act into the commission’s mandate. The provision protects most large technology platforms from liability for the content they host on their platforms. While the FCC does not regulate web platforms, Carr has been a vocal advocate of finding a way for the agency to do so.

Broadband for all

ISPs are also looking at how the new administration could change the industry.

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

“We look forward to helping you in your efforts to provide affordable internet service to families to achieve the American dream — including in the rural areas we’re building now,” Winfrey said in a statement congratulating him on Trump on Wednesday.

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

“Carr has already thought about that top-down review of the regulations, to eliminate regulations that are outdated or overly burdensome,” she said.

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

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

In March, Trump sued ABC News and anchor George Stephanopoulos, alleging that comments he made about Trump being convicted of rape, rather than sexual abuse, were defamatory. After ABC News hosted the presidential debate on September 10, he asked the network to have its broadcast license revoked due to allegations of improper fact-checking against him. He called for Comcast Corp.-owned NBC to be investigated for “treason” over its coverage of criminal cases.

“I don’t think any of us would be surprised if we see very tough questions about whether over-the-air licensees have additional obligations to be impartial,” Petro said.

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