Appeal Denied To Force FCC Standard General-Tegna Deal Decision

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit has denied Standard General’s petition asking the court to force the FCC to vote on its proposed acquisition of Tegna before its financing expires on May 22.

Standard General reached its agreement to buy Tegna in February of 2022 and the review by the Media Bureau of the Federal Communications Commission has stretched out for more than a year. On February 24, the bureau designated the transaction be reviewed by an administrative law judge, a process likely to take several more months.

Tegna owns 64 TV stations in 51 U.S. markets and agreed to be acquired by Standard General for $8.6 billion including debt. Tegna also owns multicast networks True Crime Network, Twist and Quest and advanced advertising company Premion.

If the review goes past May 22, when financing for the deal expires, the deal expires with it, Standard General founder and managing partner Soo Kim said, reports NextTV.com.

In its filings, Standard General has said that sending the deal to an administrative law judge unconstitutionally kills the deal without the FCC actually ruling on its application to have the Tegna station licenses transferred to Standard General. 

But the D.C. Circuit ruled Standard General did not demonstrate the FCC “has unreasonably delayed in acting on their applications.” Standard General also did not show that the FCC had a “crystal clear” duty to rule on the application without resort to a hearing, the court ruled.

Observers agreed the ruling probably means the deal won’t close.