The TV Industry is Consolidating Like it’s 1999

The $10.2 billion in television station deals that have taken place this year make 2013 the fourth-biggest deals year on record -- and it’s only October.

Ten companies now control 55% of all local TV advertising revenues, according to a new report from Free Press. Some of the drivers of this M&A boom include the rapid rise in the “retransmission consent” fees that broadcasters can demand from pay-TV outfits, and the Citizens United-enriched flood of political advertising money every couple years. But Free Press argues that the Federal Communications Commission’s policies toward “sidecar” agreements are also a factor. The group argues that, by allowing TV station owners to run multiple stations in a market that it doesn’t own, “FCC policies are a major factor driving the latest wave of consolidation.”