Suit accuses Sinclair, others of ad price fixing

Some of the biggest names in the TV industry have engaged in a conspiracy to drive up the price of local television advertising, according to a federal lawsuit filed Wednesday on behalf of advertisers nationwide.

The suit, which targets Sinclair Broadcast Group, Tribune Media and four other firms, alleges that the companies violated the nation’s antitrust laws by colluding to fix the rates TV stations charge for advertising airtime. It adds that the collusion was an inevitable byproduct of recent decisions at the Federal Communications Commission, whose deregulatory approach to the broadcast industry allegedly contributed to media consolidation that encouraged illicit coordination.

A dwindling number of competitors in the broadcast market has not only given former rivals a greater chance to work together, but has also made it harder for newer rivals to challenge their dominance, the suit alleges.

“Instead of competing with each other on prices for advertising sales, as competitors normally do, Defendants and their co-conspirators shared proprietary information and conspired to fix prices and reduce competition in the market,” according to the suit, which was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. The remaining defendants are Gray Television, Hearst Corp., Nexstar Media Group and Tegna. Sinclair and Tribune declined to comment. The other four companies did not respond to a request for comment.

The suit comes a week after the Wall Street Journal reported that the Justice Department had conducted an investigation into whether the companies had improperly coordinated to manipulate the price of TV advertising.