250 Days and Counting

The FCC's informal 180-day shot clock for reviewing proposed mergers has now reached day 250 on the Standard General-Tegna merger with no end in sight.

The FCC review of the merger continues to drag on. In February of this year, Tegna agreed to be acquired by Standard General for $8.6 billion, including debt. The company owns 64 TV stations in 51 U.S. markets and also owns multicast networks True Crime Network, Twist, and Quest, as well as advanced-advertising company Premion.

Since the merger was announced, the FCC has been reviewing the deal and seeking comment on various issues that have arisen. On December 16, Standard General told the FCC that it would not try to apply retransmission consent agreements currently in place between its Cox Media Group TV stations and Tegna stations, a move that was met with criticism from MVPDs who feared that they would have to pay more for Tegna stations.

In an effort to address concerns about newsroom cutbacks, Standard General pledged on December 22 "not to conduct any journalism or newsroom staffing layoffs" for at least two years and to recognize the labor unions with current collective bargaining agreements with Tegna. However, the FCC still wants more comment on this latest development.

Finally, on December 23, Standard General agreed to all of the retransmission consent-related conditions that the NCTA-the Internet & Television Association had wanted as long as it owned Tegna. However, the FCC once again wants more comment on this latest iteration of the proposed merger.

It appears that a decision likely not being made until at least early February.