With the spinoff by Cox Media Group of 18 stations to Imagicomm Communications earlier this week, the race to the finish line for the proposed Standard General majority acquisition of TEGNA is inching closer to its conclusion. Regulatory approval of a deal that would see Apollo Global Management take a non-voting minority stake in a “new TEGNA” awaits.
As such, a pro-MVPD and retransmission consent fee foe has called on the FCC to “closely examine” attribution issues and impose “effective conditions” in place to prevent violations of the joint negotiation prohibition.
In reply comments submitted to the FCC as part of MB Docket No. 22-162, which seeks public comment on the transfer of control of TEGNA to the Standard General/Apollo Global Management partnership, the American Television Alliance — of which ACA Connects is a member — took aim at statements offered by the applicants that consist of a promise not to jointly negotiate or share information about retransmission consent.
The ATVA says it marked the first time such comments were made.
While that’s a step in the right direction for the group, it laments, “These statements are not enforceable and contain loopholes.”
Those “loopholes,” the ATVA asserts — “none of it applies to affiliates of the named parties, and the part about joint negotiation does not apply to Cox Media Group.”
Cox is majority-owned by Apollo, hence the spinoff of 18 stations to Imagicomm.
“The Commission cannot rely on a single-paragraph assurance about [the] applicants’ behavior,” the ATVA says. “It should continue to closely examine issues about attribution. And it should impose effective conditions, including those proposed by ATVA, on the transaction to prevent collusion and to aid the Commission’s enforcement thereof.”
The ATVA also noted the applicants’ recent consent decree in which the Department of Justice determined that CMG and TEGNA have already unlawfully shared market information in other contexts.
