Sinclair will Pay the Largest Civil Penalty Involving a Broadcaster in the FCC's History
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Sinclair Broadcasting will be almost $50 million dollars poorer as it has agreed to pay the FCC a $48 million civil penalty and abide by a strict compliance plan in order to close three open investigations.
The FCC sent out a press release that says that Sinclair is paying the biggest fine in FCC history against a broadcaster to close an investigation into the company’s disclosure of information relating to its proposed acquisition of stations owned by Tribune Media.
They are also paying up to close investigations into whether the company has met its obligations to negotiate retransmission consent agreements in good faith and lastly for its failure to identify the sponsor of content it produced and supplied to both Sinclair and non-Sinclair television stations.
“Sinclair’s conduct during its attempt to merge with Tribune was completely unacceptable,” said FCC Chairman Ajit Pai. “Today’s penalty, along with the failure of the Sinclair/Tribune transaction, should serve as a cautionary tale to other licensees seeking Commission approval of a transaction in the future.”
People have called on the FCC to revoke Sinclair's licenses.
Pai described those demands as politically motivated and said that he did not agree with that action. “ I disagree with those who, for transparently political reasons, demand that we revoke Sinclair’s licenses. While they don’t like what they perceive to be the broadcaster’s viewpoints, the First Amendment still applies around here,” Pai.
Back in 2016, FTVLive told you that Sinclair was in hot water for airing paid content disguised as news for the Huntsman Cancer Foundation.
After, FTVLive’s story the FCC voted to propose a fine of over $13 million against Sinclair in 2017. In the Consent Decree, Sinclair admits that its actions violated the Commission’s sponsorship identification rules.
