# Understanding the Broadcast VOICES Act

The Broadcast VOICES Act aims to increase the number of radio and television stations owned by women and minorities. Right now, the broadcasting industry is heavily dominated by a small group of owners—less than 6 percent of TV stations are women-owned and less than 4 percent are minority-owned, with similar gaps in radio. This bill creates financial incentives to change that.

The core of the bill establishes a tax certificate program that rewards people who sell broadcast stations to women or minorities. Here's how it works in practice: if you own a radio or TV station and sell it to someone from an underrepresented group, you can get a special tax certificate from the Federal Communications Commission. With that certificate, you can defer paying taxes on your profits from the sale—similar to how the government treats other types of property exchanges. You could also reduce taxes on other business assets you own. This makes selling to a diverse buyer financially attractive compared to selling to anyone else. The program has a cap: individual sales can't exceed $50 million in value, and there are limits on how many sales per year can qualify.

The bill also creates a tax credit for people who donate broadcast stations or interests in stations to charities that train women and minorities to run broadcast operations. If you donate a station worth $10 million to such a charity, you could claim a tax credit for that full amount, reducing your federal taxes dollar-for-dollar. These incentives are designed to last for 16 years, giving the program time to measurably increase diverse ownership.

Additionally, the bill requires the FCC to regularly report to Congress on how many broadcast stations are owned by women and minorities, and to make recommendations for further improvements. The agency must also study whether having more diverse owners actually leads to more diverse viewpoints on the air—addressing the underlying concern that ownership diversity matters because it affects what stories get told and whose voices get heard in local communities.