4 states try to halt $3.9 billion 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. That agency and the Justice Department are reviewing the merger, which was announced in May.
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 in order to protect viewpoint diversity and localism,” they wrote. A federal mandate prohibits the reach of a single local broadcaster of beyond 39% of U.S. TV homes.
The company entered the television business in 1971, when Julian Sinclair Smith opened its first TV station in Baltimore. His son David Smith became CEO in 1988 and by 2014, Sinclair had 109 TV stations.
In January, Ripley became CEO and Smith is now executive chairman. Another son, Duncan, is vice president and secretary. With a third son, Robert, who remains a director, the three brothers own about 21% of the public company.
The company got some attention in April for hiring Boris Epshteyn, a special assistant to President Trump, as a chief political analyst. His “Bottom Line with Boris” commentary segments appear across Sinclair’s network of stations.
Its stations stretch across the U.S, from Albany, N.Y., and Gainesville, Fla., to Seattle and El Paso. The combined broadcast company would have stations in 39 of the top 50 markets.
Sinclair has said the merger would allow the new company to better serve local viewers with expanded local coverage, better facilities and more programming, delivered in part by operational efficiencies, allowing Sinclair to upgrade the stations’ facilities, expand the stations’ local coverage (including local news), offer even greater value to multi-channel video distributors, and increase syndicated and original programming offerings.