ACA, DirecTV, TWC Ask FCC to Block Part of Gannett/Belo Deal

Pay-TV providers large and small asked the Federal Communications Commission to deny the transfer of the licenses of Belo's KMOV St. Louis; KTVK and KASW, both Phoenix; and KMSB and KTTU, both Tucson, or at least condition the transfer on disallowing coordinated carriage negotiations.

Those stations are part of Gannett's $2.2 billion (cash and debt) deal to buy Belo's broadcast holdings. But because they are in markets where Gannett already owns stations and could not own more without violating FCC local ownership limits, Gannett is spinning them off to new owners. Those are Jack Sander, former Belo group chief, and Ben Tucker, former head of the Fisher station group. But Gannett is still identifying those stations as part of a new Gannett Super Group, and plans to get credit from Wall Street by consolidating their performance into Gannett financial results.