CBS Corp., Cox Enterprises Inc., E.W. Scripps Co., Fox Corp., and Tegna Inc. all agreed to consent decrees barring them from sharing certain competitively sensitive information for the next seven years, according to court documents filed Monday. In addition, each company is required to adopt rigorous antitrust compliance and reporting measures.
Court papers didn’t indicate any financial penalties as part of the settlement.
Pricing for spot advertising is negotiated by advertisers and the companies, and often, the advertisers “play off” the stations against each other to receive competitive revenues. Cox’s sales rep firm, Cox Reps Inc., is among the top two sales reps firms that represents hundreds of stations throughout the U.S. The Justice Department alleges Cox Reps, another sales rep firm and the stations shared station-specific revenue pacing data.
The government said such pacing data, which compares sales bookings against prior-year results, gave station owners insights into each station’s remaining spot ad inventory.
The civil complaint alleged the data was shared two ways: both through the sales reps firms and, in some regions, directly between station employees.
The civil complaint against CBS, Cox and the other companies was filed in December, along with similar settlements with six other station owners. At the time, Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc., Tribune Media Co., Raycom Media Inc., Meredith Corp., Griffin Communications LLC and Dreamcatcher Broadcasting LLC agreed to similar consent decrees.
Authorities caught wind of the ad-sales firms’ sharing information on their clients’ behalf last year during a previously unrelated review of Sinclair’s plans to acquire Tribune, which later never went through.
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