Sinclair Amends Tribune Deal...Again

In a move likely in response to the Justice Department, Sinclair has once again amended its June 2017 deal to purchase Tribune Media's stations, this time adjusting last week's amended filing to cut Harrisburg-Lancaster-Lebanon-York (PA) from the markets where it sought to own two of the top four stations to take advantage of the Federal Communications Commission's new case-by-case waiver of the prohibition on such ownership. Sinclair will now sell one of the two stations in that market rather than try for an exemption.

Sinclair declined comment on what had changed, but Harrisburg had been moved out of the section on markets were Sinclair is seeking to own two of the top four stations to the bucket for "Overlap Markets where Sinclair is divesting stations to comply with the Duopoly Rule." It is a fairly safe bet that deciding to sell one of the Harrisburg stations instead of trying to hold onto both was at the behest of the Justice Department, whose antitrust review looks at share of ad revenue in a market. That may have been the holdup in the DOJ review of the deal, a decision on which had been expected by now.

Sinclair is still seeking FCC permission to own two of the top four in only Greensboro-High Point-Winston Salem (NC) and Indianapolis (IN), but reducing the number of such reviews from three to two could speed the FCC's review, which goes beyond antitrust and ad share to public-interest benefits.