Sinclair, 5 others settle over TV ad pricing claims

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 allowed 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. And it forbids them from sharing nonpublic information about ad sales for a period of 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 each other’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.

The settlement follows a classaction suit filed by advertisers in August claiming that the media companies had conspired to fix the price of TV advertising.

It reflects the Justice Department’s heightened scrutiny of the increasingly concentrated media industry.

In recent months, the agency has continued to fight its unsuccessful lawsuit to block AT&T’s merger with Time Warner (now renamed WarnerMedia).

Four of the companies didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Meredith said it disagreed with the allegations but thought it was in the company’s best interest to enter into the settlement.

“Importantly, the settlement does not require Meredith to pay any penalty, includes no admission that any law has been violated, and will not require us to change our current business practices,” the company said in a statement.

Tribune Media called the issue a “distraction” and said it was glad to put it behind the company “in a way that has no operational effect.”