The FCC Media Bureau approved Media General’s merger...
The FCC Media Bureau approved Media General’s merger with Young Broadcasting Friday, one day after Media General’s shareholders approved the all-stock transaction, according to an FCC order and a Media General news release (http://bit.ly/1bfSseV). The deal will add Young’s 12…
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network stations to the 18 already owned by Media General. The new company will be majority-owned by Young shareholders but retain the Media General name and headquarters, operating in 27 markets and reaching 16.5 million U.S. TV households. The approval comes over the objections of Dish Network, which is engaged in a retransmission consent battle with Media General (CD Oct 21 p7). Since Dish has already filed a complaint against Media General in the retrans dispute, the bureau said it couldn’t consider Dish’s retrans-related objections to the merger. “We will not take action in the context of this limited proceeding that will pre-judge the outcome of another proceeding pending before us,” said the order. The bureau also rejected an informal objection from Spartan Media, which had argued that Young Broadcasting had violated ownership rules with sharing arrangements in the past. Along with the merger, the FCC also approved “satellite exemptions” for several stations involved in the transactions, and a “failing” station waiver. Public interest attorney Andy Schwartzman said the FCC’s approval of the merger doesn’t indicate the commission’s stance on other opening mergers such as Sinclair/Allbritton or Tribune/Local, because those mergers involve controversial sharing arrangements.