Tomorrow is the Day for Sinclair
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Speaking of TV station sales....
Tomorrow is the deadline for Sinclair to provide the FCC with more evidence of the public interest benefits it claims for the deal and more information on how it will comply with local ownership rules.
Sinclair is banking on the fact that the FCC is going to relax ownership rules and that will let them own more stations and not worry too much about reaching much more than current 39% national audience reach.
If the Sinclair/Tribune deal goes through the company will have 70% reach.
Rep. Dave Price has introduced a bill, the Local and Independent Television Protection Act, that would permanently eliminate the UHF discount and would keep the reach at 39%.
B&C writes that joining Price to push back on the merger and for the bill are former FCC commissioner Michael Copps, One America News Network president Charles Herring and Capitol Broadcasting chair Jim Goodmon.
"At a certain point, the Federal Communications Commission took out the UHF discount because it didn’t make sense anymore— stations being UHF is no longer a disadvantage, it is an advantage,” says Goodmon. “Now, low and behold, the FCC put it back in and none of us can understand why. We rely on the FCC for technical competence in terms of frequency and power; we rely on them being straightforward and open on technical standards and on how things work. But now, they’re cooking the books in order to change the ownership limits. The way the FCC has done it is just disgraceful.”
