The Justice Department is investigating whether television station owners violated antitrust law in ways that inflated local television advertising prices, according to The Wall Street Journal citing people familiar with the matter.
The probe has examined whether Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc., Tribune Media Co. and other independent TV station owners coordinated efforts when their ad sales teams communicated with each other about their performance, potentially leading to higher rates for TV commercials, one of the people said.
Companies like Sinclair and Tribune own dozens of local TV stations that carry programming from national broadcast networks like ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox.
“It is our policy not to comment on a potential investigation,” said a Sinclair spokesman. “It is our understanding that this is not specific to Sinclair but focuses on the larger broadcast industry.”
A spokesman for Tribune declined to comment.
Government officials stumbled across the alleged ad sales practice during their review of Sinclair’s $3.9 billion proposed acquisition of Tribune, the people familiar with the matter said. Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai put that deal in jeopardy last week by referring the matter to an administrative law judge. Mr. Pai said Sinclair hadn’t been candid in its filings with the telecom regulator.
The two station groups submitted detailed documents during their merger review process.
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