Media firms settle ad-pricing lawsuit

Some of the biggest names in broadcast television have reached a settlement with government regulators after the Justice Department filed a lawsuit alleging that the companies shared private information with one another in ways that enabled them to subtly manipulate TV ad prices.

The settlement covers six companies: Sinclair Broadcast Group, Raycom Media, Tribune Media, Meredith Corp., Griffin Communications and Dreamcatcher Broadcasting. It forbids them from sharing nonpublic information about ad sales for seven years.

“The unlawful exchange of competitively sensitive information allowed these television broadcast companies to disrupt the normal competitive process of spot advertising in markets across the United States,” Makan Delrahim, the Justice Department’s antitrust chief, said in a statement.

By sharing advertising sales data, the companies gained insight into one another’s operations that they would not have had otherwise, according to the Justice Department’s lawsuit. The added information gave them the ability to develop specialized pricing strategies and greater leverage over advertisers when negotiating with them for deals.

Meredith said it disagreed with the Justice Department’s allegations but thought it was in the company’s best interest to enter into the settlement.

Tribune Media, whose stations include Los Angeles’ KTLA, called the issue a “distraction” and said it was glad to put the matter behind it “in a way that has no operational effect.”