Media Bureau Approval of Sinclair/Allbritton Expected this Week, Attorneys Say
FCC approval of the $963 million purchase by Sinclair Broadcast of Allbritton Communications’ TV stations is expected to come by way of a Media Bureau decision on delegated authority this week, broadcast attorneys and public interest officials told us. The Department of Justice filed a consent decree announcing its conditional support for the deal last week (CD July 16 p8), and the FCC traditionally issues its decisions on deals after DOJ weighs in, several broadcast attorneys said in interviews Monday. Sinclair has asked the bureau to issue a decision before July 27, because the purchase agreement allows either party to terminate the deal on or after July 28 (CD May 30 p1). It’s unlikely that the Media Bureau would allow the clock on the deal to run out without weighing in, and the time limit makes it doubtful that the decision would be a full commission vote, the attorneys told us. The FCC’s next open meeting is August 8.
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DOJ and the FCC are seen as coordinating their actions more than they have in the past, so the issuance of the DOJ consent decree requiring Sinclair and Allbritton to sell their interests in WHTM-TV Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, to Media General is seen as a signal that both agencies are ready to rule on the deal, broadcast attorneys told us. DOJ wouldn’t have filed the consent decree until the FCC was ready to act, one attorney familiar with broadcast transactions told us.
The terms of the consent decree also likely indicate coordination between the parties involved, the attorneys told us. Sinclair announced plans to sell WHTM to Media General nearly a month before the issuance of the consent decree (CD June 24 p16). That’s a sign that the parties involved are unlikely to be surprised by the upcoming Media Bureau ruling on the deal, the attorneys said. Sinclair did not respond to a request for comment.
Though the DOJ has indicated in FCC filings that that it opposes sharing arrangements, its consent decree with Sinclair might indicate that some deals involving the arrangements can get approved, broadcast attorneys told us. Though DOJ’s review of the deal treated the sharing arrangement between Sinclair’s WCIV-TV Charleston, South Carolina, and Cunningham’s WTAT Charleston as though they were merging, it didn’t find that their cooperation was lessening competition, according to the consent decree.
That could indicate that other sharing arrangements could survive a DOJ review, one broadcast attorney suggested. Free Press Policy Counsel Lauren Wilson disagrees. Since DOJ was looking specifically at ad sales in the Charleston area, it doesn’t reflect on agreements in other markets, she said. DOJ acknowledged the competitive effects of sharing arrangements by treating the two stations as a merged entity, she said. “That’s the takeaway,” she said.