The Hill reports that the FCC will take public comments on Sinclair-Tribune merger until July 12th of this year. Sinclair stations currently reach 40% of US households and with the merger that would increase to 72%.
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will take new comments from the public on Sinclair Broadcast Group’s $3.9 billion bid for Tribune Media.
The agency is reopening its review of the merger for public comments after the two companies proposed to sell off some local stations in an effort to bring the deal in line with media ownership restrictions.
The public will have until July 12 to weigh in on the docket.
Also at Reuters: FCC seeks new comments on proposed Sinclair Tribune merger.
Earlier on SN: Sinclair Broadcast Group to Buy Indebted Tribune Media for $3.9 Billion (2017)
Related Stories
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.
Related: Gannett Ends Pursuit of Rival Newspaper Publisher Tronc
Tribune announced its withdrawal from the $3.9 billion transaction in a[n] emailed statement Thursday. Tribune said it has filed a lawsuit in the Delaware Chancery Court against Sinclair seeking compensation for losses incurred as a result of "Sinclair's material breaches" of the merger agreement.
[...] The FCC order asked whether Sinclair was in fact the hidden buyer in a proposal to sell Chicago's WGN-TV to a Maryland automobile executive with no prior broadcast experience, and ties to Sinclair management. The agency also questioned links between the Maryland-based broadcaster and a buyer proposed for stations in Dallas and Houston.
Tribune Media released details of its lawsuit against Sinclair Broadcast Group. saying it is seeking $1 billion from the local TV station owner due to its "belligerent and unnecessarily protracted negotiations" with regulators, which it says doomed the $3.9 billion deal.
Nexstar buys Tribune in $4.1 billion deal
Nexstar Media Group announced Monday it will buy Tribune's 42 television stations and cable network in an all-cash $4.1 billion deal. The merger will form the nation's largest TV station company. Tribune's stock (TRCO) is surging 10% in premarket trading.
[...] The sheer size of Nexstar will massively enlarge the Texas-based media company. If approved, the combined company will own more than 200 TV stations and cover 39% of US households.
Nexstar will now gain a foothold in major markets, including New York, Los Angeles and Chicago for the first time, plus a cable channel (WGN America) and a 31% stake in the Food Network.
See also: ACA: Without Conditions, Nexstar-Tribune Should Be Nixed
Nexstar, Tribune TV deal poses test for Trump regulators
Nexstar Attracts Interest for Stations Sale That's Part of Tribune Deal
Previously: FCC Reopens its Review, Solicits Public Comments on Sinclair-Tribune Merger Until 2018-07-12
FCC Chairman Defends Decision to Refer Sinclair-Tribune Deal to Administrative Law Judge
Trump Criticizes FCC for Moving to Block Sinclair-Tribune Merger
Tribune Media Withdraws from Sinclair Merger; Sues for $1 Billion
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Gaaark on Wednesday May 23 2018, @10:14AM (1 child)
INCREASE competition, don't DECREASE it!
Gods, are they stupid?
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 5, Insightful) by stretch611 on Wednesday May 23 2018, @11:45AM
Not stupid, just paid off. Not to mention the promise of high paying do nothing jobs when they leave the office.
Now with 5 covid vaccine shots/boosters altering my DNA :P
(Score: 2) by VLM on Wednesday May 23 2018, @01:07PM (5 children)
Google up Larry Millers report on legacy broadcast radio, its already dead, just still twitching a little.
Teen top 40 music discovery already moved online to streaming services and youtube, so thats done.
To some extent much as CNN or the financial news channels can never die in a zombie like sense because they're on TVs for boomers and older to watch in airports and waiting rooms, there are applications for radio such as construction sites that will prevent radio from ever completely going zombie.
I would not be surprised to see that multi billion dollar investment lose maybe three quarters of its value over the next decade or so. Can they squeeze out enough profit and resume stuffing until the crash to make the merge worthwhile? Maybe. But its a dead/dying industry.
Does anyone care that iTelegram bought the monopoly telegram and telex service in the US from Western Union in '05 or so? A great resounding "no"? Well thats how legacy broadcast radio will be, a couple old people nostalgic about the old days of radio, but nobody listening to it and you'll have to go to google to find out its still technically in operation.
I don't mind the collapse in "diversity" because business pressures in a dying industry enforce copying each other such that a future 5 nearly identical top 40 stations that statistically no one listens to do not lose much value over 10 nearly identical top 40 stations. Its not like we'll lose a diversity of opinion and style. Anyone who likes anything other than legacy boomer neocon talk, sportsball hot takes, and top 40 R+B has long since moved to satellite or online, so contracting identical stations cannot reduce competition in the market.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Snotnose on Wednesday May 23 2018, @01:13PM (1 child)
The main reason broadcast radio is nearly dead is because of Clearchannel. They overpaid for a bunch of stations, fired the local DJs, erased all local memories and ties, generated a playlist in Podunk Ark that nobody except the owners of Clearchannel liked, then watched the listeners flock to CDs, NPR, and, later, the internet. Then sat in bankruptcy court wondering what happened.
When the dust settled America realized it was saved by a porn star.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by VLM on Wednesday May 23 2018, @03:12PM
CC was more a symptom than a cause. All dying industries have some kind of financialization gambling scheme boiling down to we lose money on every sale but we'll make it up in volume. Its pretty much the standard death pattern in the modern economy.
The LBO bonds paid interest on time for a decade, if the rate was high enough I'm not sure the investors lost money on the deal (too lazy to look it up). Well, sure they lost money compared to inflation over the last decade, etc, but it wasn't a totally crazy gamble to take.
Ten seconds of google resulted in some babble about "14% senior unsecured notes due 2021" so a decade of 14% APR payments isn't that bad of a loss, really. Of course if you were expecting your capital back in 2021 in addition to the payments, then it suxs thats its vaporized, but its not like you lost money on the deal.
(Score: 2) by dry on Thursday May 24 2018, @04:57AM (2 children)
I still listen to radio, it's free, it works even when all the internet connection I can get is dial up and some stations aren't bad. I listen to the CBC, which while government funded, is fairly independent and one way of keeping up with current affairs, a station just across the border (Bellingham WA) that is surprisingly good considering it is American, probably due to small market and Bellingham stations have usually targeted Vancouver. And a local station that has really gone downhill since they've been owned by a large media consortium.
I don't pay for data on my phone, but it came with a decent FM app, my truck has a radio, but no internet and my internet is over LTE with a 250 GB limit and my wife would rather watch Netflix then use our bandwidth on streaming.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Thursday May 24 2018, @02:02PM (1 child)
I don't know if you can define something government funded as independent, but regardless the problem isn't the tech or one guy likes it, but the industry has been going down the tubes and a side effect of financialization schemes during the death of industries is the product generally suffers pretty badly and gets worse over time (newspapers, legacy TV, "pop music industry" etc).
There might not be enough you to run the biz, at least as it was run in the old days when there were more listeners.
(Score: 2) by dry on Thursday May 24 2018, @03:40PM
Every media outlet depends on funding and that is how the last government attacked the CBC, funding cuts and a plan to privatize it if they won the last election. Other stations have advertisers that can cut funding or like the NPR, corporate sponsors they depend on. Private industry is a lot more free to pressure media then government who have to debate and pass a law in the legislature.
It ended up being a major campaign issue. I saw more "Save the CBC" signs then most any other political sign during the last Federal election, so a lot of the population supports the CBC.
(Score: 2) by ilsa on Wednesday May 23 2018, @09:28PM
Given how they handled the supposed public comment period of reversing Net Neutrality, I see no reason to believe that public comments will inform this decision at all.
They've already made their minds up. This is just theatre.