FCC Isn’t Done With Sinclair-Tribune

The seemingly endless review of the proposed Sinclair Broadcast Group-Tribune Media merger doesn’t show signs of being wrapped up anytime soon. And that’s fine with the cable and satellite operators opposed to the deal, who are looking to block it, and maybe also get some help from a federal court in the effort.

While the Federal Communications Commission has put the latest iteration of the proposed merger out for public comment — there have been five versions so far — the agency has set a seven-week comment period, slightly longer than most anticipated, which means it won’t be making a decision on the deal until at least mid-July. That will make it more than a year since the FCC first put the deal out for initial comment.

Cable and satellite operators — and some other interested parties — want the FCC to deny the merger, arguing that it would give Sinclair untoward leverage in retrans negotiations.

The FCC did not restart its informal deal shot clock, currently stuck on day 167, even though it consolidated all five of the Sinclair iterations for comment and is expecting this to be essentially the final version. But it still wants more information on Sinclair’s proposal to be allowed to own two of the top four stations in Indianapolis and St. Louis. The FCC presumes such dual ownership of dominant stations violates its local ownership rules, but in a deregulatory move last fall, it eliminated the absolute prohibition and said it would look at such combinations on a case-by-case basis.