UHF Discount Foes Fire First Legal Shot

Opponents of Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai's restoration of the UHF discount, which helped pave the way for a possible Sinclair/Tribune merger, have taken their first shot in federal court, saying the decision was illegally arbitrary and capricious and served no public interest purpose.

Late Sept 25, a coalition of nonprofit media consolidation critics including Free Press, Common Cause, the National Hispanic Media Coalition and Prometheus Radio Project, laid out their case for why the decision to reinstate the discount was arbitrary and capricious and not in the public interest. The previous Democratic-led FCC had eliminated the discount as an outmoded artifact of the analog TV era. The groups, filing their opening brief in the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit, said the FCC did not present any "valid or factual legal basis" for the discount's return. "The best indication that reinstating the discount was not actually intended to maintain the status quo, is the fact that, just two weeks after the Commission issued its decision reinstating the discount, Intervenor Sinclair announced plans to acquire Intervenor Tribune," they told the court. That deal could give Sinclair, already the largest TV station group at slightly under the 39% cap, a reach of over 70% of the country.