Sinclair/Tribune Opponents Fear Repacking Slowdown, Say Petitions to Deny

Some opponents of Sinclair buying Tribune argue in petitions to deny posted by the FCC Tuesday that the new company would have unprecedented ability to drag the post-incentive auction repacking to a halt, and would want to do so because of its massive investment in ATSC 3.0. “Sinclair’s ‘all-in’ posture on ATSC 3.0 gives it a strong self-interest in using whatever leverage it has to promote the adoption of this standard,” petitioned T-Mobile. A delay in repacking would give Sinclair more time to lobby the commission to devote more reimbursement funds to paying for stations to buy 3.0 equipment, said the filing in docket 17-179.

The Competitive Carriers Association, United Church of Christ and Public Knowledge also expressed concern about Sinclair’s threat to the repacking. Free Press, NTCA, Newsmax and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers also opposed the deal as a threat to independent programming, localism, and as likely to drive retrans rates northward. The American Cable Association, Dish Network and others announced their plans to oppose the deal Monday (see 1708070071).

The deal would give Sinclair “the horizontal and vertical market power to grind the repack to a halt,” CCA said. T-Mobile and CCA suggested Sinclair and subsidiaries such as Dielectric could deliberately withhold equipment from competing broadcasters, delay broadcasters who use Sinclair-owned towers, and exploit the “daisy chains” of stations that can’t be repacked until another station is moved first, to delay the repack effort. “Sinclair has the incentive to impede the incentive auction and a history of seeking to do so,” T-Mobile said, citing Sinclair’s lobbying and litigation efforts against the incentive auction and the 39-month repacking deadline. “Deployment delays in the 600 MHz spectrum would prevent competitive and rural wireless carriers from meeting the growing consumer demand for mobile broadband, and impeding new uses of unoccupied TV spectrum could thwart development of new technologies,” said Public Knowledge Policy Fellow Yosef Getachew in a release. Sinclair didn't comment.

Broadcast attorneys familiar with the repacking disputed that any broadcaster would seek to “slow roll” the repack. “Nobody wants it to take forever, we just know there’s no way it’s gonna happen in 39 months,” one said. Broadcasters want the repacking over in the fastest realistic time frame, the lawyer said. NAB and broadcasters sought to delay the auction through court challenges years ago, but most want to have the repacking over with quickly, another said. If Sinclair or Dielectric were actively to seek to slow the repack, the FCC would likely be able to impose sanctions, said a longtime broadcast attorney. If Sinclair were causing other broadcasters to miss their repacking deadlines, such action would be likely, the attorney said. The short time frame that might be provided by an extension of the repacking is unlikely to be enough to substantially aid an ATSC 3.0 rollout, an lawyer said.

Petitions to denyalso focused on the company’s size as an impediment to localism and a violation of FCC rules. Sinclair favors centralized control of local stations, said the joint filing from PK, UCC and Common Cause. “If Sinclair is allowed to merge, the company could potentially run ‘pseudo-networks’ -- controlling the local programming of hundreds of broadcast stations.” The deal is “antithetical to the concept of a free and independent press,” IBEW said. “Communities within new overlap markets would see a permanent reduction in the number of independent voices and a decline in local journalism jobs,” said Free Press.

Sinclair’s practices in retrans negotiations will drive up rates and squeeze out independent programmers, said petitions. The deal shouldn’t be approved in a way that allows Sinclair to own two top-four stations in a market because it will give Sinclair too much leverage in retransmission consent negotiations, the American Television Alliance said. Sinclair hasn’t sought a waiver to buy such duopolies, but suggested it could amend its application later, ATVA said. “We expect that Sinclair will either not purchase Tribune stations in these markets or divest its own stations before closing,” ATVA said. “The proposed merger would create the single largest broadcast station group in the nation, further consolidating the combined entity’s market power,” said NTCA. "The level of media concentration proposed by this transaction will homogenize the content available to US consumers, eliminate unique viewpoints and reduce press diversity, especially in the delivery of local news,” said Newsmax.