Uncertainty Stalling TV Station Trading Market

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Over the last several months, TV station dealmaking has slowed considerably. Blame uncertainty over the new Federal Communications Commission local ownership regulations, the incentive auction, retransmission, reverse compensation and a possible rewrite of the Communications Act, say the market experts.

On March 30, 2014, the FCC Chairman and the two other Democratic Commissioners voted 3-2 to impose tough restrictions on joint sales and shared services agreements and require many of those already in place to be unwound over the next couple years. Such agreements enabled broadcasters to operate two stations -- duopolies -- in markets where the rules say they may own only one. After several years of heady action, station trading action dropped off sharply starting just about a year ago. In 2013, the biggest deal year in at least a decade, volume totaled nearly $10 billion. In 2014, it barely scratched its way to $5 billion, and much of that was thanks to deals that had been in the pipeline for a while. In 2015, who knows.


Uncertainty Stalling TV Station Trading Market