4 states try to halt $3.9B Sinclair TV mega-merger

A nearly $4 billion deal to create a nationwide TV powerhouse is attracting a growing group of critics.

Hunt Valley, Md.-based Sinclair Broadcast Group, the largest U.S. broadcaster with 191 stations, is seeking regulatory approval for the $3.9 billion acquisition of Tribune Media Co. and its 42 stations.

But state attorneys general in four states — Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts and Rhode Island — have come out in opposition to the merger, saying that the bolstered Sinclair, with 230-plus TV stations, would have too much national power and could stifle points of view in local markets.

They’re also concerned that Sinclair, which some critics say forced local stations to provide favorable coverage to Republican candidate Donald Trump’s campaign at the expense of rival Hillary Clinton, has too cozy a relationship with the administration.

“The proposed consolidation fails to further the public interest by allowing for increased consolidation that will decrease consumer choices and voices in the marketplace,” the state attorneys general wrote in their letter Thursday to Federal Communications Commission.

The deal would bring together Sinclair’s current roster of 191 stations, which reaches more than 38% of the U.S., with Tribune’s portfolio of WGN and stations in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and Philadelphia.

The state AGs’ concerns are echoed by consumer advocates and some in the TV industry, as well as a coalition of 49 Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives. The group sent questions about the merger to Sinclair CEO Christopher Ripley last week.

Sinclair’s post-merger reach of 72% reach of U.S. homes “is well above the cap that Congress imposed,” they wrote. A federal mandate prohibits the reach of a single local broadcaster of beyond 39% of U.S. TV homes.

EILEEN BLASS/USA TODAY Sinclair headquarters in Baltimore.