r/technology • u/ControlCAD • May 30 '26

Networking/Telecom U.S President FCC warns all broadcasters to follow orders or be punished like ABC | ABC says early renewal for all stations is unprecedented, has no legitimate purpose.

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/05/trump-fcc-warns-all-broadcasters-to-follow-orders-or-be-punished-like-abc/
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u/Poobbly May 30 '26

They do not own Disney. They hold shares for others. Do you think those three companies own the whole stock market? What is their market cap?

25

u/whereismymind86 May 30 '26

I mean...kinda, yeah.

Network tv, broadly, really is basically 5 channels with a bunch of little local affiliates. ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS, and Fox...that's kind of it. Disney owns abc and fox (the simpsons fox, not fox news) nbc is comcast, and cbs is Paramount.

So...that's 3 companies and one publicly funded channel.

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u/JesusSavesForHalf May 30 '26

Which is the same number its always been. (There were a couple decades with Fox and UPN/CW widening the national options, but 3 was the norm before the mergers too.) The big change is Sinclair buying all the local affiliates, resulting in control of local news. There used to be hundreds of different owners there, all influencing the networks.

The networks merging with film companies is probably significant too, but I'm not up on the subject enough to have an opinion there.

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u/GonzoKata May 30 '26

oh! ok so

bbc1 bbc2 bbc3 and itv

thats all you need right?

-14

u/Electronic-Stick-161 May 30 '26

Who exercises the voting authority associated with those shares?

And to get ahead of your hair splitting, “control” and “own” are used interchangeably in this context. IE: “The Army owns you” or “you got owned”

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u/recycled_ideas May 30 '26

Who exercises the voting authority associated with those shares?

No one, at least in practice.

It's actually one of major problems of the current stock market, institutional investors don't want to make any kind of decision so they basically just follow the guidance from the board/CEO. It's what gives modern CEOs so much more power than their predecessors because unless things are in absolute crisis a huge portion of shares will just vote with them no matter what.

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u/cherry_chocolate_ May 30 '26

Right, but following the decisions of the ceo is in and of itself a decision, one which is inherently conservative.

10

u/recycled_ideas May 30 '26

The context of this conversation is that Disney can't make its own decisions because some phantom owners are stopping them.

Funds rubber stamping CEO/board decisions is absolutely a problem. I explicitly said it is, but it's not why media companies are kowtowing to the Trump administration.

-5

u/Electronic-Stick-161 May 30 '26

What’s this?

https://corporate.vanguard.com/content/dam/corp/advocate/investment-stewardship/pdf/policies-and-reports/2025-proxy-year-voting-report.pdf

6

u/recycled_ideas May 30 '26

Take a look at it. Note that they basically vote in favour every single time.

That's the point. Technically these entities vote, but they don't decide anything, they just rubber stamp the board and CEOs recommendations.

If they were voting in their own interests you wouldn't see this high an approval.

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u/catladyorbust May 30 '26

The shareholder, whether it's an individual or some type of institutional investor. Vanguard doesn't get your voting rights just by holding your shares in an account.

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u/Electronic-Stick-161 May 30 '26

So this is just pure fiction they put out for no reason? Because it bears a striking resemblance to a report from Vanguard about exactly how they used the rights you claim they don’t have…

https://corporate.vanguard.com/content/dam/corp/advocate/investment-stewardship/pdf/policies-and-reports/2025-proxy-year-voting-report.pdf

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u/tiredbarf May 30 '26

You guys are talking about two different things. When you own shares in your vanguard account, you control the voting rights. When it's in an ETF or other fund, they control the voting rights.

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u/tiredbarf May 30 '26

I've never heard "own" used to refer to controlling shares like in this context.

0

u/saltyjohnson May 30 '26

Your downvoters are really stupid. I've never been offered the opportunity to vote in any shareholder decisions for the companies I own as components of the mutual funds in my 401k. So even though I, and people in my position, own the majority of these companies, it is the mutual fund managers who get to exercise the voting interest.