Pay-TV Providers: Specific Gannett/Belo Spin-Offs Are Not In Public Interest

Pay-TV providers seeking to block the spin-off TV station sales in the Gannett/Belo merger told the Federal Communications Commission that higher prices and blackouts are transaction-specific harms that the FCC can and should address.

That came from the American Cable Association, Time Warner Cable and DirecTV in reply comments on their petition to deny or condition the deal on disallowing coordinated retrans negotiations. There are stations in five markets--Phoenix; Louisville; Tucson; Portland (OR); and St. Louis -- that would violate the FCC's newspaper/broadcast cross-ownership and local ownership cap rules if Gannett were not turning around and selling them to operating companies headed by former Belo group chief Jack Sander, and Ben Tucker, former head of the Fisher station group. ACA and company argue that Gannett's plans to spin off, but still provide some services to, those stations is not in the public interest and should not be allowed.