FILE PHOTO: Commissioner of Federal Communications Commission Brendan Carr testifies during an oversight hearing held by the U.S. Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee to examine the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), in Washington, U.S. June 24, 2020. Alex Wong/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo

By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Federal Communications Commission chair Brendan Carr said on Tuesday the commission had made no decision on whether to lift the current cap on television station ownership, which is necessary for Nexstar Media to merge with smaller rival Tegna.

Acquiring Tegna would expand Nexstar's presence covering 80% of TV households across key geographies, though the companies have not yet formally filed a request for FCC approval after announcing the $3.54 billion deal in August.

"I've not made a final decision in those proceedings," Carr told reporters after a monthly FCC meeting. "We're still looking at the record."

Current FCC rules limit a company from owning broadcast television stations that reach more than 39% of U.S. television audience households, but stations with weaker over-the-air signals can be partially counted against a company's ownership cap.

Carr said he believed the cap could be revised by the commission without approval of Congress, though Democratic FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez said she did not think it had that authority.

The National Association of Broadcasters and major companies in August urged the FCC to repeal its 85-year-old national television ownership rule, which they argued "unfairly prevents broadcasters" from reaching more than 39% of the total number of TV households in the country.

They argued the rule "prevents local stations from achieving the scale needed to compete with global tech and streaming giants like Google/YouTube, Amazon, Meta and Netflix – none of which face similar restrictions."

Last week, Democratic Representative Joe Neguse and Senator Michael Bennet of Colorado urged Carr not to lift the cap and to reject the merger, saying the combined company would control 265 stations across 44 states.

"The national broadcast ownership cap promotes competition and incentivizes stations to maintain local newsroom activity and retain local journalism jobs," they wrote in a letter to Carr.

Tegna and Nexstar did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Jamie Freed)