[Roger Darthwell]

American local TV is so complicated! Utterly fascinated but totally no clue. So many brands, so many brands within brands! It’s difficult to keep up.

As an American, I'd say the level of complexity is analogous to the state of the ITV network during the 1990s -- a brand for national programming to unite the network, but strong local identities for news and non-network airtime. (That said, the US will never have a Carlton-Granada merger moment, as FCC regulations on concentration of media ownership, where one station owner can only amass a total reach of 39% of the US population, effectively make it impossible.) Probably the quirkiest parts are the continued use of station call signs (which the UK has never really had) and our approach to channel numbering (there is no centralized set of LCNs, in contrast to UK DTT, and most stations continue to use their analog-era channel numbers for branding purposes).

I never understood why the FCC made this 39% rule, why did they decide to do this? And why the FCC won't allow NBC, CBS, ABC, FOX and the CW to own all of their affiliates