Sinclair Deal With Tribune Hits Complications in Washington

Sinclair remains locked in a prolonged battle with Justice Department antitrust officials over how many stations it must sell to get their approval to buy Tribune Media. It is latest cloud over Sinclair’s $3.9 billion deal, coinciding with an internal investigation underway at the Federal Communications Commission into the agency’s relationship with the company. At issue is how much power Sinclair, the country’s largest broadcaster, will have over local media markets and national television audiences. Sinclair has argued that by combining forces with Tribune, it will be able to bolster local news coverage and be a stronger competitor to internet giants like Facebook and Google. The Justice Department is concerned that the merger will harm competition in several cities. The agency is looking at whether the deal could also give Sinclair too much power over television advertising and over licensing deals with cable and satellite companies that retransmit their broadcasts. recently  Sinclair submitted a proposal to sell stations in big markets including New York and Chicago, as well as some smaller stations. The proposal would put many of the stations in trusts, an arrangement that has raised some concern from consumer groups that the company will try to operate them through partners down the road, because it runs some stations that way now. The Tribune stations in New York and Chicago would not go into a trust, but Sinclair said it had reached agreements to sell those stations to third parties that it would partner with later. Selling them will help Sinclair get near an important threshold: owning stations that reach no more than than 39 percent of American households. Sinclair’s new plan has not satisfied the Justice Department, which still seeks more divestitures.