How the FCC helped pave the way for Sinclair to take over American broadcasting

["Dave Farber" <farber () gmail com>]

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne () warpspeed com>
> Date: October 20, 2017 at 9:50:46 AM EDT
> To: Multiple recipients of Dewayne-Net <dewayne-net () warpspeed com>
> Subject: [Dewayne-Net] How the FCC helped pave the way for Sinclair to take over American broadcasting
> Reply-To: dewayne-net () warpspeed com
>
> How the FCC helped pave the way for Sinclair to take over American broadcasting
> By Kelsey Sutton
> Oct 19 2017
> <https://mic.com/articles/185405/how-the-fcc-helped-pave-the-way-for-sinclair-to-take-over-american-broadcasting>
>
> Tribune Media’s shareholders on Thursday approved a takeover by Sinclair Broadcast Group, moving the conservative 
> telecommunications company one step closer to a massive media consolidation deal that will likely go through under 
> the Republican-led Federal Communications Commission. 
>
> Sinclair, which owns more than 170 local television channels across the country, in May proposed to buy Tribune for 
> $3.9 billion in a deal that would give it control over some of the biggest local television markets in the nation, 
> including in New York and Chicago. 
>
> “Today’s vote is an important milestone in the merger process and confirms that Tribune stockholders strongly support 
> this transaction and the value it delivers,” Tribune Media CEO Peter Kern said in a statement. “We look forward to 
> continuing our work with Sinclair toward the closing of this deal.”
>
> While regulatory and antitrust officials still need to approve the deal, it is far more likely to get the go-ahead 
> under the Trump administration’s Federal Communications Commission. FCC chairman Ajit Pai, a Republican Trump 
> appointee, voted in April to change the way the commission counts the audiences of stations, making it easier for big 
> broadcasting companies to grow even larger. 
>
> Corporations were previously limited in how many media outlets they could own in certain markets. Additionally, 
> companies are only allowed to serve 39% of the national TV viewership. But the new policy, which reversed a 2016 FCC 
> ruling, only counts of some stations’ audience, making it easier for big corporations to buy more stations before 
> maxing out. The FCC also suggested it might consider raising the 39% limit, allowing for even more expansion. 
>
> Former FCC chairman Tom Wheeler warned of the impending deal in a recent interview.
>
> “The Trump FCC has, in one very short period, moved to change three basic rules that have been in place to protect 
> the diversity of voices and avoid monopolization of the broadcast television market,” Wheeler said on PBS NewsHour. 
> “We have a society in which the flow of information is crucial to a democracy. And when that free flow of information 
> gets choked off by corporate consolidation, we ought to all worry.”
>
> Sinclair’s bid to buy Tribune has already come under a great deal of scrutiny, not least because the Baltimore-based 
> broadcaster requires its stations to run a certain amount of conservative-leaning news programming each day. That 
> practice, as well as the company’s decision to hire Donald Trump’s former campaign adviser Boris Epshteyn, has 
> attracted a considerable amount of media attention.
>
> [snip]
>
> Dewayne-Net RSS Feed: http://dewaynenet.wordpress.com/feed/
> Twitter: https://twitter.com/wa8dzp



-------------------------------------------
Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/247/=now
RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/247/18849915-ae8fa580
Modify Your Subscription: https://www.listbox.com/member/?member_id=18849915&id_secret=18849915-aa268125
Unsubscribe Now: 
https://www.listbox.com/unsubscribe/?member_id=18849915&id_secret=18849915-32545cb4&post_id=20171020110752:700298D0-B5A8-11E7-B616-8B45EC1C0102
Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com