Sinclair Broadcasting Tries to Appease FCC

Sinclair Broadcast Group, the largest local television operator in the United States, tried to placate federal regulators on Wednesday regarding its proposal to buy a rival TV group. However, The NYTimes reports the FCC still voted unanimously to have a judge review aspects of the deal, a potentially ominous sign for the merger.

The company, known for amplifying the Trump administration’s talking points in commentary segments that air on numerous local newscasts, is seeking to buy Tribune Media for $3.9 billion. The deal would put Sinclair, based in Maryland, in control of broadcasters reaching seven in 10 households across the country, including in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles.

To satisfy rules that forbid a single company to own airwaves on such a dominant scale, Sinclair previously proposed selling 23 TV stations after the deal was completed. But several of those stations would still effectively fall within its operational control.

Chairman, Ajit Pai, said on Monday that he had “serious concerns” with those planned divestitures. Mr. Pai asked the agency’s four commissioners to hand off its review of the merger to an administrative law judge to determine the legality of Sinclair’s original proposal.

The company said in a statement on Wednesday that it would now sell off two of the stations in question, one in Dallas and another in Houston, through an independent trust after the closing of the deal with Tribune. A third station, WGN in Chicago, which Tribune owns, would be sold outright to Sinclair to make who controls the station more transparent.

Sinclair is trying to create a conservative-leaning news operation to rival Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News. If the company succeeds in buying Tribune, it will control more than 200 stations reaching 62 percent of households.

Sinclair’s divestiture plan came under scrutiny because several of the stations it planned to sell would effectively remain within Sinclair’s control through contractual agreements known as “sidecars.”