FCC OK's Raycom Liberty Purchase

[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
The FCC has approved Raycom's $987 million purchase of Liberty Corp./Cosmos Broadcasting's 15 TV stations. The combined company will have four impermissible duopolies: Wilmington, N.C., Columbia, S.C.; Toledo, Ohio and Albany, Ga. But the FCC granted Raycom six-month waivers to operate those stations while it looks for a buyer and the FCC works on a court-ordered rewrite of FCC rules governing who can own how many stations, and where. (And that'll be done in six months? Sure.) In addition, if the company has not sold the stations by the end of the FCC's waiver period, Raycom agrees to a consent decree stipulating that, upon the filing of the decree, Raycom has another 90 days to divest -- with an extra 60 days if DOJ wants to be extra nice -- after which Justice can appoint a trustee to sell them itself. Raycom also promised the Antitrust Division of the Justice Department "to operate the stations in the overlap markets as separate entities and maintain competition between them pending divestiture." ("We promise.")
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