Chalk up another defeat at the FCC for direct broadcast satellite TV service provider DirecTV, as well as a coalition of state cable associations; a coalition of pan-Asian and Pacific Islander public interest groups; the Civil Rights Coalition; Business Forward; and Chris Ruddy-owned Newsmax.
Their efforts to deny the transfer of two groups of broadcast TV properties to Gray Media have fallen flat with the head of the Media Bureau’s Video Division.
As such, the wheels have been put into motion allowing Gray to close on the transactions. One involves an $80 million agreement with Block Communications Inc. to acquire its “WDRB Media” — comprised of WDRB-TV, the FOX station in Louisville; the ABC, CBS, NBC and FOX affiliates serving Lima, Ohio — WLIO and WOHL; WAND-TV in Decatur, Ill.; and Louisville-based WBKI-TV, which features The CW on its 58.1 main channel and MyNetwork TV programming on its DT3 signal.
The deal was announced in August 2025, and sees Gray combine WAVE-3 and WDRB-TV in Louisville.
The other transaction, announced in late July 2025, sees Gray Media acquire from SagamoreHill Broadcasting the NBC affiliate for the Columbus, Ga., WLTZ-TV, and the FOX affiliate for the Lubbock, Tex., market, KJTV-TV.
With this proposed transaction, Gray seeks to create duopolies with its Columbus, Ga.-based ABC affiliate, WTVM-TV, and its Lubbock-based NBC affiliate, KCBD-TV, respectively.
A pleading cycle was opened in October 2025 seeking public input for the transactions, which require FCC local ownership rule waivers. Enter DirecTV, Newsmax and the public interest groups. With the familiar refrain from DirecTV that it would suffer direct economic harm due to higher input prices that it claims it will have to pay as a result of the transactions, the DBS provider posit that lead to harms as a result of increased levels of market control. They claim that the transactions would increase retransmission consent rates by giving broadcasters more leverage over distributors in retransmission consent negotiations, which would ultimately flow through to satellite and cable customers.
For the Civil Rights Coalition, a reduction of local news and increased duplication is the biggest concern regarding TV industry ownership consolidation.
Gray retorted that DirecTV’s objections are speculative, while Gray stated that it hopes to increase local news in the markets where it is purchasing the BCI and SagamoreHill stations.
David J. Brown, Video Division Chief, agreed with Gray, stating, “We find that there are no material public interest harms arising from the transactions.”
He added that the Commission further finds that “certain transaction-related public interest benefits are likely to be realized, especially given Gray’s reaffirmed commitment to ‘strong local news and information programming.’”
