FCC Media Bureau Order DA 26-416 Calls In Licenses of All Eight ABC-Owned Stations for Early Renewal Within 30 Days

On April 28, 2026 (adopted and released the same day), the Chief of the FCC Media Bureau’s Video Division, David J. Brown, issued Order DA 26-416 directing The Walt Disney Company and ABC to “file license renewals for all of their licensed TV stations within 30 days,” by May 28, 2026. The order covers the eight ABC-owned stations: KFSN-TV (Fresno), KABC-TV (Los Angeles), KGO-TV (San Francisco), WLS-TV (Chicago), WABC-TV (New York), WTVD (Durham), WPVI-TV (Philadelphia) and KTRK-TV (Houston). It is a two-page Bureau order issued on delegated authority; the Commission did not vote.

The stated basis. The order recites that the FCC “has been investigating Disney’s ABC stations for possible violations of the Communications Act of 1934 and the FCC’s rules, including the agency’s prohibition on unlawful discrimination,” that ABC had “purported to respond” to two letters of inquiry, and that early renewal is “essential” to the proper conduct of the investigation under the Commission’s rule on early renewals. The order does not mention Jimmy Kimmel, The View or any program. The Bureau’s May 29 public notice (DA 26-541, MB Docket No. 26-131) puts the investigation as one into whether ABC engaged in prohibited practices by “hiring, promoting, compensating, and/or providing” workplace opportunities based on race, gender or other protected characteristics. That notice accepted ABC’s May 28 filing of renewal applications for its eight television licenses and set the pleading cycle: petitions to deny due June 29, oppositions July 29, replies August 5. It also notes that none of the licenses “would ordinarily be due for renewal until 2028, at the earliest.”

What ABC alleges. In its later federal complaint (see 2026-08-18–abc-disney-sue-fcc-first-amendment-retaliation-complaint-says-no-candidate-on-the-view-since-february), ABC alleges the order issued “the day after the President objected to additional on-air comments by Mr. Kimmel” and that the Commission “had not called for a renewal application ahead of schedule in more than half a century.” Those are ABC’s allegations, not findings; the FCC’s filings in that case give the discrimination investigation as the reason. This entry records the order’s text and the sequence and draws no inference about motive.

Pattern context. An early-renewal call-in puts all eight stations’ licences before the Commission in a public petition-to-deny process, years before ordinary expiry (ABC pleads that the earliest expiration is 2028 and the latest 2031). It followed the February 2026 equal-time inquiry into The View (see 2026-02-19–fcc-investigates-abc-the-view-equal-time-violations) and the September 2025 Kimmel suspension (see 2025-09-17–fcc-carr-threatens-abc-kimmel-suspension).

Research Gaps

• The two letters of inquiry and ABC’s responses are not public in the documents read.
• Petitions to deny filed in the renewal docket (due June 29) were not read.
• Whether the Commission has acted on the applications or designated them for hearing: nothing located as of the date of writing.