Sinclair Broadcast Group announced the FCC and DOJ have approved the company’s $958 million acquisition of eight Allbritton ABC affiliates in seven markets. Sinclair intends to close the deal on 8/1. Sinclair is also picking up KATV Little Rock AR, KTUL Tulsa and WSET Roanoke, VA.
In the modified deal, Sinclair satisfied FCC concerns about ownership rules by selling its Harrisburg station and giving up its licenses to stations in Birmingham and Charleston, shifting programming to other stations it already owns. In the end, Sinclair get ABC affiliates in six additional markets.
Said FCC Media Bureau Chief Bill Lake in a statement: “The Order released today approving the transaction between Sinclair and Allbritton exemplifies the careful scrutiny the Bureau will provide to broadcast transactions that propose new combinations of sharing arrangements and financial entanglements between a dominant licensee and a so-called sidecar entity. The Media Bureau has demonstrated clearly that it will not allow such combined arrangements to undermine the local TV ownership rule, which is in place to ensure competition and diverse voices on the airwaves. When the Commission adopted the Joint Sales Agreement Order in March, the Chairman announced a two-fold goal: to close off what had become a growing end-run around our local TV ownership rule, while ensuring prompt and careful review of proposed transactions that advance our public interest mandate. The Order released today is consistent with those goals and with our broader mandates to ensure continued access to programming and encourage competition in the marketplace. Consumers deserve access to as many truly independent broadcast voices as possible, and our actions in this area follow through on our commitment to that objective.”
Sinclair announced it would buy Allbritton a year ago, but the deal ran into trouble after the FCC banned the use of SSAs and JSAs in small markets on 3/31.
Likely realizing the writing was on the wall, Sinclair submitted a letter to the FCC in order to meet objections it has to SSAs and to shared agreements coupled with a contingent financial interest before the vote.
To satisfy the government, Sinclair said it would try to spin off the Allbritton stations in the three markets. It sold WHTM Harrisburg to Media General for $83.4 million. Unable to find buyers for WCFT and WJSU in Birmingham and WCIV Charleston, SC, it said it would give up their licenses and move their programming, including that of ABC, to stations it owned in the markets — WABM in Birmingham and WMMP in Charleston. Sinclair also agreed to terminate the LMA in Charleston between WMMP and Cunningham Broadcasting’s WTAT. The The Commission, however, was not convinced would operate independently of WMMP: “Given the extensive and longstanding past relationship between WTAT-TV and WMMP(TV), we believe a reporting condition is also necessary to safeguard competition in Charleston,” the FCC said in its deal approval. “We require that, for a period of eight years, Cunningham report on quarterly basis to the Media Bureau any formal or informal sharing arrangements involving services provided to WTAT-TV by other stations in the market or by licensees, other entities, or individuals who hold an attributable interest in another station in the market.”
