The Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday ordered an early review of ABC’s broadcast licenses, putting Disney’s television properties under sharper regulatory pressure as the agency continues its inquiry into the company’s diversity, equity and inclusion practices.
The review covers ABC’s eight TV stations, including WABC-TV in New York and KABC-TV in Los Angeles, and comes as the FCC says it is investigating whether Disney’s DEI policies violated federal anti-discrimination rules. The agency’s probe began in March 2025.
The move is the latest sign that the commission’s fight with Disney has moved beyond paper scrutiny. In a letter to then-Disney chief executive Robert Iger last year, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said ABC’s mandatory “inclusion standards” may have led the network to impose racial and identity quotas across production. The agency also has accused ABC of using race-based hiring practices and of limiting corporate fellowships to selected demographic groups.
Disney said it has a “long record” of operating in full compliance with FCC rules. A company spokesperson said Disney is prepared to show that it remains qualified as a licensee under the Communications Act and the First Amendment, and that it will do so through the appropriate legal channels.
The timing of the order drew immediate scrutiny because it came the day after President Trump called for Jimmy Kimmel’s firing. Katie Fallow called the move “highly suspect” and said it was a way to pressure Disney and ABC to pursue different programming and to get them to fire Kimmel. Blair Levin said the timing was strong evidence that the motive for the early renewal process relates to the president’s call to fire Kimmel, not an ABC employment action.
Carr defended the agency’s approach by pointing back to the FCC’s earlier warning to Disney. “You can go all the way back to more than a year ago, in March of last year, where I wrote a letter to Disney saying that there was evidence... or allegations indicating that Disney, through this sort of invidious form of DEI discrimination, was creating, as I specified in a letter to them, racially segregated spaces inside the company,” he said. He also said the FCC had written to Disney more than a year ago, in March of last year, about allegations of “invidious form of DEI discrimination.”
The agency had already ordered Bridge News earlier this week to file early license renewal applications for its TV stations, a sign that the commission is willing to use its licensing authority more aggressively. But stripping Disney of broadcast licenses would be difficult, and legal experts say the FCC would face major obstacles if it tried to do so. For now, Disney is signaling that it will fight on the record the agency has built against it, and that is the test the company says it is ready to meet.
