DirecTV has been on an all-out assault at the FCC to do what it can to stop the transfer of control of broadcast TV stations to companies that would be adding to assets already in a given market. The reason, they bemoan, is the likely increase in retransmission fees they’d have to pay due to fewer owners, giving them more leverage.
The Commission has consistently dismissed this postulation. It did so once more in granting approval of a Michigan TV station deal.
The matter involves the consent request before the Commission for the transfer of control of WFQX-TV in Cadillac, Mich., and full-power satellite partner WFUP-TV in Vanderbilt, Mich.
Since agreeing to purchase the stations in May 2007, these properties have been held by Cadillac Telecasting Co., fronted by Alexander Bolea. At that time, Cadillac struck a shared services agreement with Heritage Broadcasting Co. of Michigan, owner of WWTV-TV in Cadillac and WWUP-TV in Sault Ste. Marie, Mich. This SSA accord, forged 19 years ago, allowed Heritage to get a put and call option in exchange for guaranteeing Bolea’s debt.
In late January 2026, the FCC was asked to approve a change of control for WFQX and WFUP, shifting the licensee of the stations from Cadillac and the Bolea Revocable Trust to the Mario Peter Iacobelli Revocable Trust. That didn’t sit well with DirecTV Chief Content Officer Rob Thun, responsible for overseeing all programming strategies, network negotiations, and sports content acquisitions.
Thun and his team on March 2 filed a Petition to Deny, as the trust would have attributable interest in WWTV and WFQX. The main beef: it would be subject to direct economic harm due to higher input prices that DirecTV asserts it will have to pay as a result of the transaction.
In its response, Heritage and Cadillac in a joint opposition statement said that calling DirecTV’s contention that combining the two would make consumer price increases inevitable “a stretch would be a serious understatement.”
For David J. Brown, Chief of the FCC Media Bureau’s Video Division, the proposed transaction “fully complies with the Commission’s rules, including the post-Zimmer Radio Local Television Ownership Rule, and that there are no issues or potential public interest harms identified in the record that would require further consideration. Notably, while the Commission will consider transaction-specific objections to otherwise rule-compliant transactions, we find that DirecTV has failed to advance any such objections.”
This put the wheels in motion on granting the applications, and getting the parties closer to closing a deal that has been in the works for nearly two decades.
