Court Clears the Way for Sinclair/Tribune Deal
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It was a ray of hope for the people working at the Tribune stations, but now the ray is gone.
The U.S. Court of Appeals in D.C. denied the emergency stay motion that was in place to stop the FCC from implementing its decision help groups like Sinclair from buying up other station groups like Tribune.
When the Sinclair/Tribune deal goes through, Sinclair will have over 70% TV coverage reach across the country.
The stay was put in place to stop a deal like this from happening, but the Court of Appeals denied the stay and the Sinclair/Tribune deal is back on track to happen.
“The Court of Appeals’ decision to allow the reinstatement of the UHF discount makes it easier for huge ownership groups to take over the media market, at the expense of Latinos, media owners of color and local voices that seek to serve their diverse communities,” said Carmen Scurato, director of policy and legal affairs at the National Hispanic Media Coalition. “The DC Court has cleared the way for massive consolidation, negatively impacting the thousands of owners and consumers that this appeal represented. The FCC has a mandate to act in the public interest yet by reinstating the UHF discount, Chairman Pai has signaled that he is on the side of big media conglomerates that want more control of what we see and hear on the airwaves.”
This is a sad day for local TV news and its future.
