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Sinclair Broadcast Group to Buy Indebted Tribune Media for $3.9 Billion

posted by martyb on Tuesday May 09 2017, @11:19AM   Printer-friendly
from the teaming-up dept.

takyon writes:

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-tribune-media-m-a-sinclair-idUSKBN1841HR

U.S. broadcaster Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc said on Monday it would buy Tribune Media Co, one of the largest U.S. television station operators, for about $3.9 billion cash and stock, and assume about $2.7 billion in debt.

[...] The announcement of the deal comes weeks after the U.S. Federal Communications Commission voted to reverse a 2016 decision that limits broadcasters owning stations serving no more than 39 percent of U.S. television households.

A combined Tribune and Sinclair could surpass this cap and face some regulatory challenges which could result in divestitures, analysts said.

Tribune Media. The newspaper assets were spun off years ago into Tribune Publishing, aka Tronc.

Sinclair Broadcast Group.

Related: Gannett Ends Pursuit of Rival Newspaper Publisher Tronc

Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 10 2017, @12:24AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 10 2017, @12:24AM (#507206)

    "A Scandal": After FCC Bent Rules, Right-Wing Sinclair Network to Grow Even Bigger [commondreams.org]

    former Federal Communications Commission (FCC) commissioner and Common Cause adviser Michael Copps said it was both "expected and disappointing".

    "Expected because the new FCC majority is foaming at the mouth to rubber stamp more massive media mergers", Copps explained, "and disappointing because Sinclair is not known for the best journalism in the land, to put it mildly. Our nation's civic dialogue suffers yet another blow with this merger."

    Craig Aaron, president of the communications watchdog organization Free Press, called the deal "a scandal".

    The Baltimore Sun reports [baltimoresun.com] that the merger would give Sinclair ownership or control of TV stations in 72 percent of the United States.

    -- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]