Attempted acquisition of Tribune Media by Sinclair Broadcast Group
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The attempted acquisition of Tribune Media by Sinclair Broadcast Group was a proposed broadcast media transaction between
Sinclair Broadcast Group Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc. (SBG) is a publicly traded American telecommunications conglomerate that is controlled by the descendants of company founder Julian Sinclair Smith. Headquartered in the Baltimore suburb of Cockeysville, Maryland, t ...
and
Tribune Media Tribune Media Company, also known as Tribune Company, was an American multimedia conglomerate headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. Through Tribune Broadcasting, Tribune Media was one of the largest television broadcasting companies, owning 39 ...
. Formally announced on May 8, 2017, the $3.9 billion deal would have resulted in Sinclair owning—or having operational control over—stations available in 72% of all households with a television set in the United States. The deal received criticism from multiple special interest groups and Democratic and
Republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...
politicians who felt that the deal could give Sinclair an effective
oligopoly An oligopoly (from Greek ὀλίγος, ''oligos'' "few" and πωλεῖν, ''polein'' "to sell") is a market structure in which a market or industry is dominated by a small number of large sellers or producers. Oligopolies often result from ...
on television broadcasting. Sinclair's prior track record of running public affairs shows and commentary segments in local newscasts among their station group supportive of
conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...
platforms induced concern over possible imperiled
editorial independence Editorial independence is the freedom of editors to make decisions without interference from the owners of a publication. Editorial independence is tested, for instance, if a newspaper runs articles that may be unpopular with its advertising clien ...
among the Tribune stations, with said programming potentially used by Sinclair for favoritism of Republican presidential and congressional candidates in
swing state In American politics, the term swing state (also known as battleground state or purple state) refers to any state that could reasonably be won by either the Democratic or Republican candidate in a statewide election, most often referring to pre ...
s.
Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdiction ...
(FCC) chairman
Ajit Pai Ajit Varadaraj Pai (; born January 10, 1973) is an American lawyer who served as chairman of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) from 2017 to 2021. He has been a partner at the private-equity firm Searchlight Capital since April 20 ...
also encountered backlash over the deal; prior to the merger announcement, Pai reversed several decades-old policies pertaining to broadcast ownership—along with policies implemented by prior chairman
Tom Wheeler Thomas Edgar Wheeler (born April 5, 1946) is an American businessman and former government official. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as the 31st Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission. He was appointed by President Bara ...
—leading some to speculate that Pai instituted those changes to benefit Sinclair. The purchase attempt was ultimately terminated by Tribune Media on August 9, 2018, after emerging scrutiny over proposed divestitures by Sinclair, prompting the FCC to put the deal up for review and Pai to publicly reject it. Several months after the deal's termination, Tribune Media was successfully acquired by
Nexstar Media Group Nexstar Media Group, Inc. is an American publicly traded media company with headquarter offices in Irving, Texas; Midtown Manhattan; and Chicago, Illinois. The company is the largest television station owner in the United States, owning 197 te ...
. This unsuccessful acquisition occurred concurrently with two successful major media mergers:
The Walt Disney Company The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...
's acquisition of
21st Century Fox Twenty-First Century Fox, Inc., doing business as 21st Century Fox (21CF), was an American multinational mass media corporation that was based in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It was one of the two companies formed on June 28, 2013, f ...
and
AT&T AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the world's largest telecommunications company by revenue and the third largest provider of mobile tel ...
's purchase of
Time Warner Warner Media, LLC ( traded as WarnerMedia) was an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate. It was headquartered at the 30 Hudson Yards complex in New York City, United States. It was originally established in 1972 by ...
.


Background

On February 29, 2016, Tribune announced that it would review various "strategic alternatives" to increase the company's value to shareholders, which include a possible sale of the entire company and/or select assets, or the formation of programming alliances or strategic partnerships with other companies, due to the decrease in its stock price since the Tribune Publishing spin-off and a $385 million revenue write-down for the 2015 fiscal year, partly due to original scripted programming expenditures for
WGN America WGN America was an American subscription television network that was owned by the Nexstar Media Group, and was the company's only wholly owned, national cable-originated television channel. The channel in its final form under the WGN branding ran ...
since it converted the cable network from a
superstation ''Superstation'' (alternatively rendered as "super station" or informally as "SuperStation") is a term in North American broadcasting that has several meanings. Commonly, a "superstation" is a form of distant signal, a terrestrial television, br ...
in 2014. On March 1, 2017, reports surfaced that Sinclair Broadcast Group was in discussions to acquire Tribune Media, which was approached by Sinclair management about a possible merger deal in late February. Any deal would have been forged pending FCC review of the UHF discount, a rule enacted by the agency in 1985 with the intent of encouraging ownership of
UHF Ultra high frequency (UHF) is the ITU designation for radio frequencies in the range between 300 megahertz (MHz) and 3 gigahertz (GHz), also known as the decimetre band as the wavelengths range from one meter to one tenth of a meter (on ...
television stations by subtracting their total market coverage by 50% of their overall signal distribution, which had been eliminated in a 3–2 vote led by former FCC chairman
Tom Wheeler Thomas Edgar Wheeler (born April 5, 1946) is an American businessman and former government official. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as the 31st Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission. He was appointed by President Bara ...
in September 2016 because of its obsolescence on technological grounds. (UHF stations transmitting over the
ATSC Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) standards are an American set of standards for digital television transmission over terrestrial, cable and satellite networks. It is largely a replacement for the analog NTSC standard and, like that ...
digital format have improved signal reception compared to those which broadcast over the
NTSC The first American standard for analog television broadcast was developed by National Television System Committee (NTSC)National Television System Committee (1951–1953), Report and Reports of Panel No. 11, 11-A, 12–19, with Some supplement ...
analog standard prior to the 2009 analog-to-digital transition for full-power television stations.) Such a deal would complement Sinclair, as it only had an 11% market overlap with Tribune and required minimum divestment of broadcasting assets; additionally, Sinclair would expand its reach within the top-10 markets, which currently consist of two television properties in
Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
: one television station,
ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...
affiliate
WJLA-TV WJLA-TV (channel 7) is a television station in Washington, D.C., affiliated with ABC. It is one of two flagship stations of Sinclair Broadcast Group (alongside dual Fox/MyNetworkTV affiliate WBFF hannel 45in Baltimore), and is also sister to ...
(channel 7), and its associated 24-hour cable news channel, NewsChannel 8 (now
WJLA 24/7 News WJLA 24/7 News is an American regional cable news television channel in Washington D.C. by ABC-affiliated station WJLA-TV (channel 7) owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group. The channel provides 24-hour news coverage primarily focused on Washing ...
). Reports later stated that Sinclair was offering to buy Tribune at a per-share price in the high $30s. The reports of Sinclair's interest in acquiring Tribune led several unnamed station owners – which also inquired about purchasing some or all of Tribune's assets outright or through a consortium – as well as leading Tribune shareholder Starboard Value to approach
21st Century Fox Twenty-First Century Fox, Inc., doing business as 21st Century Fox (21CF), was an American multinational mass media corporation that was based in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It was one of the two companies formed on June 28, 2013, f ...
about taking options to thwart the deal as a defensive measure; the major impetus was that a combination of Sinclair (which is already the largest
Fox Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelve sp ...
affiliate operator by station count, with 54 primary and subchannel-only affiliates) and Tribune (the network's largest affiliate operator by total market reach, as its 14 Fox stations are concentrated in top-50 markets) would potentially result in Sinclair obtaining leverage over 21st Century Fox in
reverse compensation Reverse compensation, in United States broadcasting, is the practice of a commercial television station paying a television network in exchange for being permitted to affiliate with that network. The word "reverse" refers to the historical practice ...
negotiations for its Fox- and
MyNetworkTV MyNetworkTV (unofficially abbreviated MyTV, MyNet, MNT or MNTV, and sometimes referred to as My Network) is an American commercial broadcast television syndication service and former television network owned by Fox Corporation, operated by its ...
-affiliated stations (the 68 Fox affiliates that the two companies own, in particular, cover a combined 28% of the U.S.). These reports were confirmed on May 8, when Sinclair announced that it would acquire Tribune for $3.9 billion,Economist, Business Section, May 13–19, 2017, page 6 along with the assumption of Tribune's $2.7 billion debt load; it beat
Irving, Texas Irving is a city in the U.S. state of Texas. Located in Dallas County, it is also an inner ring suburb of Dallas. The city of Irving is part of the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. According to a 2019 estimate from the United States Census Bureau, ...
-based broadcaster
Nexstar Media Group Nexstar Media Group, Inc. is an American publicly traded media company with headquarter offices in Irving, Texas; Midtown Manhattan; and Chicago, Illinois. The company is the largest television station owner in the United States, owning 197 te ...
, which at the time was not willing to make a higher bid closer to Tribune's appraisal price, for the stations.


Assets that would have been acquired

Had the merger been successful, Sinclair would have acquired the majority of the 42 television stations owned and/or operated by
Tribune Broadcasting Tribune Broadcasting Company, LLC was an American media company which operated as a subsidiary of Tribune Media, a media conglomerate based in Chicago, Illinois. The group owned and operated television and radio stations throughout the United Sta ...
and their associated digital properties, along with two websites not associated with any television stations. Tribune has stations in the five largest
media market A media market, broadcast market, media region, designated market area (DMA), television market area, or simply market is a region where the population can receive the same (or similar) television and radio station offerings, and may also incl ...
s – CW affiliate
WPIX WPIX (channel 11) is a television station in New York City. Owned by Mission Broadcasting, it is operated under a local marketing agreement (LMA) by Nexstar Media Group, making it a ''de facto'' owned-and-operated station and flagship (broadcas ...
(channel 11) in
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
, CW affiliate
KTLA KTLA (channel 5) is a television station in Los Angeles, California, United States, serving as the West Coast flagship of The CW. It is the largest directly owned property of the network's majority owner, Nexstar Media Group, and is the seco ...
(channel 5) in
Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
, independent station
WGN-TV WGN-TV (channel 9) is an Independent station (North America), independent television station in Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, United States. Owned by Nexstar Media Group, it is sister station, sister to the company's sole radio property, talk ra ...
(channel 9) in
Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...
, MyNetworkTV affiliate
WPHL-TV WPHL-TV (channel 17) is a television station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, affiliated with MyNetworkTV. The station is owned by Nexstar Media Group and has studios in the Wynnefield section of West Philadelphia; it maintains a ...
(channel 17) in
Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
, and CW affiliate
KDAF KDAF (channel 33) is a television station licensed to Dallas, Texas, United States, serving the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex with programming from The CW. It is owned and operated by network majority owner Nexstar Media Group (based in nearb ...
(channel 33) in
Dallas Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...
Fort Worth Fort Worth is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Texas and the 13th-largest city in the United States. It is the county seat of Tarrant County, covering nearly into four other counties: Denton, Johnson, Parker, and Wise. According ...
in order from #1 through #5 – adding to Sinclair's existing station property in a Top 10 market, WJLA-TV (
Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
/ Hagerstown), which would have been supplanted as the largest market in which Sinclair owned a station (Sinclair would also have gained a duopoly in D.C. with the acquisition of CW affiliate
WDCW WDCW (channel 50), branded on-air as DCW 50, is a television station in Washington, D.C., airing programming from The CW. It is owned and operated by network majority owner Nexstar Media Group alongside Hagerstown, Maryland–licensed independe ...
). The two websites that were to have been acquired by Sinclair were entertainment news and television listings service Screener (also known as Zap2It) and its subsidiary website
TV by the Numbers TV by the Numbers was a website devoted to collecting and analyzing television ratings data in the United States that operated from 2007 to 2020. It was a part of Nexstar Media Group's Zap2it television news/listings site. History An Internet ...
. On the radio side, Sinclair would also have acquired ownership of WGN (720 AM) in Chicago, which was Tribune's lone radio property. Also acquired would have been the following assets associated with WGN-TV: *
WGN America WGN America was an American subscription television network that was owned by the Nexstar Media Group, and was the company's only wholly owned, national cable-originated television channel. The channel in its final form under the WGN branding ran ...
– a cable-satellite television network that formerly served as the
superstation ''Superstation'' (alternatively rendered as "super station" or informally as "SuperStation") is a term in North American broadcasting that has several meanings. Commonly, a "superstation" is a form of distant signal, a terrestrial television, br ...
feed of WGN-TV from November 1978 until December 2014 *
Antenna TV Antenna TV is an American digital television network owned by Nexstar Media Group. The network's programming consists of classic television series, primarily sitcoms, from the 1950s to the 1990s. Antenna TV's programming and advertising operati ...
– a digital multicast network focusing on classic television sitcoms *
Chicagoland Television Chicagoland Television (branded on-air as CLTV) was an American regional cable news television channel located in Chicago, Illinois. The channel served the Chicago metropolitan area. The channel was formerly owned by Tribune Media (through its T ...
(CLTV) – a regional cable news channel founded by Tribune in January 1993 and shares resources with the WGN-TV news department * Tribune (FN) Cable Ventures Inc. – an umbrella cable television network unit The following equity stakes would also have been acquired by Sinclair: * A 50 percent stake in
This TV This TV (also known as This TV Network and alternately stylized as thisTV) is an American free-to-air television network owned by Allen Media Broadcast Networks, LLC, part of the Allen Media Group division of Entertainment Studios. Originally fo ...
(co-owned with
MGM Holdings MGM Holdings, Inc. is an American holding company incorporated in Delaware and headquartered in Beverly Hills, California, launched on February 11, 2005 by a creditor-oriented consortium as the parent company of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (from which ...
) * A 30 percent stake in each of the
Food Network Food Network is an American basic cable channel owned by Television Food Network, G.P., a joint venture and general partnership between Warner Bros. Discovery Networks (which holds a 69% ownership stake of the network) and Nexstar Media Group ...
and
Cooking Channel Cooking Channel is an American basic cable channel owned by Food Network, a joint venture and general partnership between Warner Bros. Discovery Networks (69%) and Nexstar Media Group (31%). The channel is a spin-off of Food Network, broadcasting p ...
(majority owned by
Discovery, Inc. Discovery, Inc. was an American multinational mass media factual television conglomerate (company), conglomerate based in New York City. Established in 1985, the company operated a group of factual television, factual and lifestyle television bra ...
) With the purchase of Tribune, speculation arose about how Sinclair would utilize WGN America, which was in the process of shifting away from scripted content at the time of the purchase announcement. Sinclair CEO Christopher Ripley stated that it would de-emphasize high-end scripted series from WGN America's programming slate (an effort undertaken by Tribune beginning in 2015, following its reformatting of the network from serving as the
superstation ''Superstation'' (alternatively rendered as "super station" or informally as "SuperStation") is a term in North American broadcasting that has several meanings. Commonly, a "superstation" is a form of distant signal, a terrestrial television, br ...
feed of WGN-TV into a conventional entertainment-based basic cable channel devoid of WGN-TV's news and sports programming); Ripley cited that the network's original programming budget was unjustified based on the channel's ratings (while not among the top 25 highest-rated cable networks, WGN America's viewership had gradually increased since the introduction of original scripted series, posting its highest monthly ratings in March 2017, during which it total viewership averaged 446,000 viewers and viewership among adults ages 25 to 54 totaled at 157,000). Media analysts revived speculation tracing to the group's January 2016 purchase of
Tennis Channel Tennis Channel is an American sports-oriented digital cable and satellite television network owned by the Sinclair Television Group subsidiary of the Sinclair Broadcast Group. It is devoted to events and other programming related to the game of ...
that Sinclair would launch a conservative-leaning cable news rival to Fox News,
Newsmax TV Newsmax TV is an American conservative television channel owned by Newsmax. The network primarily focuses on opinion-based talk shows. It carries a news/talk format throughout the day and night, with documentaries and films on weekends. During a ...
and
One America News Network One America News Network (OANN), also known as One America News (OAN), is a far-right, pro-Trump cable news channel founded by Robert Herring Sr. and owned by Herring Networks, Inc., that launched on July 4, 2013. The network is headquartere ...
(OANN) to suggest that Sinclair would use the network's existing wide national reach to launch such an effort over WGN's existing transponder and channel space. However, ''
Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...
'' reporter Cynthia Littleton noted in a May 8, 2017, article that launching a national news venture would create undue financial risk by adding further debt to that Sinclair had accrued since it began its spate of station purchases with the 2011 acquisition of
Four Points Media Group Four Points Media Group was a holding company owned by Cerberus Capital Management, established in 2007 to serve as a buyer for 7 television stations formerly owned by CBS Corporation. The company took over the day-to-day operations of the statio ...
(estimated at $3.268 billion as of March 31, 2017) as well as the debt it would have assumed through the Tribune deal. Former
professional wrestling Professional wrestling is a form of theater that revolves around staged wrestling matches. The mock combat is performed in a ring similar to the kind used in boxing, and the dramatic aspects of pro wrestling may be performed both in the ring o ...
executive
Eric Bischoff Eric Aaron Bischoff (born May 27, 1955) is an American television producer, professional wrestling booker, and performer. He is best known for serving as Executive Producer and later Senior Vice President of World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and ...
also posited during a Q&A session on his official
Periscope A periscope is an instrument for observation over, around or through an object, obstacle or condition that prevents direct line-of-sight observation from an observer's current position. In its simplest form, it consists of an outer case with ...
account on March 14, 2018, that the Sinclair-Tribune deal would allow the former to utilize WGN America to expand the reach of
Ring of Honor Ring of Honor (ROH) is an American professional wrestling promotion based in Jacksonville, Florida. The promotion was founded by Rob Feinstein on February 23, 2002, and was operated by Cary Silkin from 2004 until 2011, when the promotion was so ...
– which has produced a weekly program, ''
Ring of Honor Wrestling ''Ring of Honor Wrestling'', often shortened as ''ROH Wrestling TV'' or ''ROH TV'', is an American professional wrestling television series produced by Ring of Honor (ROH). The series featured professional wrestlers competing in matches and condu ...
'', that has been syndicated to the group's television stations since shortly after Sinclair bought the wrestling promotion in 2011 – in a manner similar to how the
Turner Broadcasting System Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. (alternatively known as Turner Entertainment Networks from 2019 until 2022) was an American television and media conglomerate. Founded by Ted Turner and based in Atlanta, Georgia, it merged with Time Warner (lat ...
utilized
World Championship Wrestling World Championship Wrestling, Inc. (WCW) was an American professional wrestling promotion founded by Ted Turner in 1988, after Turner Broadcasting System, through a subsidiary named Universal Wrestling Corporation, purchased the assets of Nation ...
(WCW) and its predecessors (including
Jim Crockett Promotions Jim Crockett Promotions Inc. is a family-owned professional wrestling promotion headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, United States, restarted by Jim Crockett's son and Jim Crockett Jr's brother, David Crockett. Founded in 1931, the promot ...
and
Georgia Championship Wrestling Georgia Championship Wrestling was an American professional wrestling promotion based in Atlanta, Georgia. The promotion was affiliated with what had been the world's top sanctioning body of championship titles for decades before, the National W ...
) from the 1970s until the early 2000s through TBS and
TNT Trinitrotoluene (), more commonly known as TNT, more specifically 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene, and by its preferred IUPAC name 2-methyl-1,3,5-trinitrobenzene, is a chemical compound with the formula C6H2(NO2)3CH3. TNT is occasionally used as a reagen ...
. Had the acquisition gone through and the promotion moved its broadcasts to the network, ''Ring of Honor Wrestling'' would have marked WGN America's first foray into professional wrestling since ''
WWE Superstars ''WWE Superstars'', or simply ''Superstars'', is an American professional wrestling television program that was produced by WWE that originally aired on WGN America in the United States and later broadcast on the WWE Network. It debuted on and ...
'' left the network in 2011. Tribune Media's former
newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as politics, business, sports a ...
division, then called Tronc (Tribune Online Content; the company was renamed to its former
Tribune Publishing Tribune Publishing Company (briefly Tronc, Inc.) is an American newspaper print and online media publishing company. The company, which was acquired by Alden Global Capital in May 2021, has a portfolio that includes the ''Chicago Tribune'', the ...
moniker in November 2018), would not have been part of the merger as it was spun off from Tribune in August 2014. Many Tronc-owned newspapers posted disclaimers that they were no longer operated as part of the former Tribune parent company when covering the Sinclair–Tribune merger, including within articles that had originally been written by the
Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...
and
Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters Corporation. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency was estab ...
and syndicated to those publications.


Proposed divestitures and sales

Although Sinclair intended to acquire all of Tribune's television stations, in order to comply with FCC ownership regulations forbidding either
common ownership Common ownership refers to holding the assets of an organization, enterprise or community indivisibly rather than in the names of the individual members or groups of members as common property. Forms of common ownership exist in every economi ...
of two of the four highest-rated stations or more than two stations in the same market as well as to comply with national ownership caps, Sinclair planned to flip 22 of the stations – fifteen owned by Tribune and seven stations owned and/or operated by Sinclair – to other buyers (although it would have ultimately retained control of stations in top-10 markets). Prior to its referral to an administrative law judge, the divestitures were reduced to 18 stations, with Sinclair choosing to rescind proposals to sell four television stations located in top-10 markets to third-party entities and instead directly acquire them.


Stations marked for divestiture

Sinclair proposed station divestitures to the following entities to ensure compliance with local and national ownership restrictions: († - owned by Sinclair) *To
Cunningham Broadcasting Cunningham Broadcasting Corporation is an owner of broadcast television stations in the United States. The company currently owns fifteen stations – eight affiliated with Fox, three affiliated with The CW, two affiliated with ABC, and two affili ...
**
WPIX WPIX (channel 11) is a television station in New York City. Owned by Mission Broadcasting, it is operated under a local marketing agreement (LMA) by Nexstar Media Group, making it a ''de facto'' owned-and-operated station and flagship (broadcas ...
(channel 11),
New York City, New York New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
– affiliated with The CW **
KDAF KDAF (channel 33) is a television station licensed to Dallas, Texas, United States, serving the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex with programming from The CW. It is owned and operated by network majority owner Nexstar Media Group (based in nearb ...
(channel 33), Dallas–Fort Worth, Texas – affiliated with The CW **
KIAH KIAH (channel 39) is a television station in Houston, Texas, United States, airing programming from The CW. Owned and operated by network majority owner Nexstar Media Group, the station maintains studios adjacent to the Westpark Tollway on the ...
(channel 39),
Houston, Texas Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...
– affiliated with The CW Cunningham Broadcasting acts as an effective subsidiary of Sinclair Broadcast Group, as its shareholding structure consists of trusts controlled by the estate of Carolyn C. Smith, who was the wife of Sinclair's founder
Julian Sinclair Smith Julian Sinclair Smith (May 5, 1920 – April 19, 1993) was an American electrical engineer and television executive. He was the founder of the Sinclair Broadcast Group. Early life Smith was born in 1920 in Baltimore, the son of a grain exporter. ...
, in the name of Julian's four sons, all of whom (including current Sinclair executive chairman
David D. Smith David Deniston Smith (born September 1, 1950) is an American businessman who is the executive chairman of Sinclair Broadcast Group (SBGI) since January 2017, having been its president and CEO from September 1990 to January 2017. Early life David ...
) are also the majority owners of Sinclair. *To WGN-TV, LLC **
WGN-TV WGN-TV (channel 9) is an Independent station (North America), independent television station in Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, United States. Owned by Nexstar Media Group, it is sister station, sister to the company's sole radio property, talk ra ...
(channel 9),
Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...
– operated as an
independent station An independent station is an independent radio or terrestrial television station which is independent in some way from broadcast networks. The definition of "independence" varies from country to country, reflecting governmental regulations, market ...
*To
Fox Television Stations Fox Television Stations, LLC (FTS; alternately Fox Television Stations Group, LLC), is a group of television stations located within the United States, which are owned-and-operated by the Fox Broadcasting Company, a subsidiary of the Fox Corp ...
**
KCPQ KCPQ (channel 13) is a television station licensed to Tacoma, Washington, United States, broadcasting the Fox network to the Seattle area. It is owned and operated by the network's Fox Television Stations division alongside MyNetworkTV outlet K ...
(channel 13),
Seattle, Washington Seattle ( ) is a port, seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the county seat, seat of King County, Washington, King County, Washington (state), Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in bo ...
– affiliated with Fox **
KDVR KDVR (channel 31) is a television station in Denver, Colorado, United States, affiliated with the Fox network. It is simulcast full-time over satellite station KFCT (channel 22) in Fort Collins. The two stations are owned by Nexstar Media Gr ...
(channel 31),
Denver, Colorado Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...
– affiliated with Fox **
KSTU KSTU (channel 13) is a television station in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States, affiliated with the Fox network. It is owned by the E. W. Scripps Company alongside Provo-licensed Ion Television owned-and-operated station KUPX-TV (channel 16 ...
(channel 13),
Salt Lake City, Utah Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the Capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Utah, most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the county seat, seat of Salt Lake County, Utah, Sal ...
– affiliated with Fox **
KSWB-TV KSWB-TV (channel 69) is a television station in San Diego, California, United States, affiliated with the Fox network. Owned by Nexstar Media Group, the station maintains studios on Engineer Road in the city's Kearny Mesa section, and its tran ...
(channel 69),
San Diego, California San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United States ...
– affiliated with Fox **
KTXL KTXL (channel 40) is a television station in Sacramento, California, United States, affiliated with the Fox network. The station is owned by Nexstar Media Group, and maintains studios on Fruitridge Road near the Oak Park district on the southern ...
(channel 40),
Sacramento, California ) , image_map = Sacramento County California Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Sacramento Highlighted.svg , mapsize = 250x200px , map_caption = Location within Sacramento C ...
– affiliated with Fox ** WJW (channel 8),
Cleveland, Ohio Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...
– affiliated with Fox **
WSFL-TV WSFL-TV (channel 39) is a television station in Miami, Florida, United States, affiliated with The CW. It is owned by the E. W. Scripps Company alongside Ion Television owned-and-operated station WPXM-TV (channel 35), also licensed to Miami. WSF ...
(channel 39),
Miami, Florida Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...
– affiliated with The CW The purchase of WSFL raised the specter that Fox planned to convert it into an owned-and-operated station of the Fox Broadcasting Company to replace
Sunbeam Television Sunbeam Television Corporation is a privately held broadcasting company based in Miami, Florida, that owns three television stations in the United States. History Sunbeam Television was formed on December 16, 1953, by Sidney Ansin, who inherite ...
flagship station
WSVN WSVN (channel 7) is a television station in Miami, Florida, United States, affiliated with the Fox network. It is the flagship station of locally based Sunbeam Television. WSVN's studios are located on 79th Street Causeway ( SR 934) in North ...
(channel 7), which had been serving as the network's Miami affiliate since January 1, 1989. (KCPQ would eventually be acquired by Fox in a separate transaction.) *To
Howard Stirk Holdings Armstrong Williams (born February 5, 1962) is an American political commentator, entrepreneur, author, and talk show host. Williams writes a nationally syndicated conservative newspaper column, has hosted a daily radio show, and hosts a nationa ...
**
KAUT-TV KAUT-TV (channel 43) is an independent television station in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group alongside NBC affiliate KFOR-TV (channel 4). Both stations share studios in Oklahoma City's McCourry Heights ...
(channel 43),
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma Oklahoma City (), officially the City of Oklahoma City, and often shortened to OKC, is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The county seat of Oklahoma County, it ranks 20th among United States cities in population, and ...
– operated as an independent station **
KMYU KMYU (channel 12) is a television station licensed to St. George, Utah, United States, serving as the MyNetworkTV affiliate for the state of Utah. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group alongside Salt Lake City–based CBS affiliate KUTV (chann ...
(channel 12),
St. George, Utah St. George is a city in and the county seat of Washington County, Utah, United States. Located in southwestern Utah on the Arizona border, it is the principal city of the St. George Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA). The city lies in the northe ...
– affiliated with MyNetworkTV† **
KUNS-TV KUNS-TV (channel 51) is a television station licensed to Bellevue, Washington, United States, serving the Seattle area as an affiliate of the Spanish-language Univision network. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group alongside ABC affiliate KOM ...
(channel 51),
Bellevue, Washington Bellevue ( ) is a city in the Eastside region of King County, Washington, United States, located across Lake Washington from Seattle. It is the third-largest city in the Seattle metropolitan area and has variously been characterized as a s ...
– affiliated with
Univision Univision () is an American Spanish-language free-to-air television network owned by TelevisaUnivision. It is the United States' largest provider of Spanish-language content. The network's programming is aimed at the Latino public and includes ...
† Howard Stirk Holdings acts as a partner company to Sinclair and is owned and controlled by
Armstrong Williams Armstrong Williams (born February 5, 1962) is an American political commentator, entrepreneur, author, and talk show host. Williams writes a nationally syndicated conservative newspaper column, has hosted a daily radio show, and hosts a nationa ...
, an African-American conservative political commentator who hosts ''The Right Side with Armstrong Williams'', a political discussion program syndicated to Sinclair-operated and Stirk-owned stations. The company was originally formed in April 2013 to acquire
NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...
affiliate
WEYI-TV WEYI-TV (channel 25), branded on-air as NBC 25, is a television station licensed to Saginaw, Michigan, United States, serving northeastern Michigan as an affiliate of NBC. It is owned by Howard Stirk Holdings, which maintains a shared services ...
(channel 25) in
Flint, Michigan Flint is the largest city and seat of Genesee County, Michigan, United States. Located along the Flint River, northwest of Detroit, it is a principal city within the region known as Mid Michigan. At the 2020 census, Flint had a population of 8 ...
and CW affiliate
WWMB WWMB, virtual channel 21 ( UHF digital channel 26), is a Dabl- affiliated television station licensed to Florence, South Carolina, United States, serving the Pee Dee and Grand Strand regions of South Carolina. The station is owned by Howard Stir ...
(channel 21) in
Myrtle Beach, South Carolina Myrtle Beach is a resort city on the east coast of the United States in Horry County, South Carolina. It is located in the center of a long and continuous stretch of beach known as "The Grand Strand" in the northeastern part of the state. Its y ...
as part of its purchase of
Barrington Broadcasting Barrington Broadcasting Group, LLC, headquartered in Schaumburg, Illinois was an American corporation focused on broadcast television, primarily in middle and small size media markets. Barrington owned or operated via duopoly twenty-four televi ...
, and, in December 2014, began operating stations independently of Sinclair – located in
Tuscaloosa Tuscaloosa ( ) is a city in and the seat of Tuscaloosa County in west-central Alabama, United States, on the Black Warrior River where the Gulf Coastal and Piedmont plains meet. Alabama's fifth-largest city, it had an estimated population of 1 ...
and
Anniston, Alabama Anniston is the county seat of Calhoun County in Alabama and is one of two urban centers/principal cities of and included in the Anniston-Oxford Metropolitan Statistical Area. As of the 2010 census, the population of the city was 23,106. Acco ...
(WCFT ow_WSES.html"_;"title="WSES.html"_;"title="ow_WSES">ow_WSES">WSES.html"_;"title="ow_WSES">ow_WSESand_WJSU-TV_[now_WGWW.html" ;"title="WSES">ow_WSES.html" ;"title="WSES.html" ;"title="ow WSES">ow WSES">WSES.html" ;"title="ow WSES">ow WSESand WJSU-TV [now WGWW">WSES">ow_WSES.html" ;"title="WSES.html" ;"title="ow WSES">ow WSES">WSES.html" ;"title="ow WSES">ow WSESand WJSU-TV [now WGWW]) and Charleston, South Carolina (WCIV [now WGWG]), all three of which were formerly ABC affiliates and became affiliated with digital multicast-originated networks upon coming under the purview of Howard Stirk – through spin-offs made as part of that group's purchase of
Allbritton Communications The Allbritton Communications Company was an American media company. Based in Arlington, Virginia, Allbritton was the leading subsidiary of Perpetual Corporation, a private holding company owned by the family of company founder and former Riggs B ...
. As with the Cunningham sales, Sinclair intended to hold operational control of the three stations through shared services agreements. *To
Meredith Corporation Meredith Corporation was an American media conglomerate based in Des Moines, Iowa, that owned magazines, television stations, websites, and radio stations. Its publications had a readership of more than 120 million and paid circulation of more ...
**
KPLR-TV KPLR-TV (channel 11) is a television station in St. Louis, Missouri, United States, airing programming from The CW. It is owned and operated by network majority owner Nexstar Media Group alongside Fox affiliate KTVI (channel 2). Both stations sh ...
(channel 11),
St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the Greater St. Louis, ...
– affiliated with The CW *To
Standard Media Standard Media Group is an American broadcast and digital media company based in Nashville, Tennessee. Standard Media was founded by Deborah A. McDermott, who serves as the company's CEO. Previously, McDermott was the chief operating officer of ...
**
KDSM-TV KDSM-TV (channel 17) is a television station in Des Moines, Iowa, United States, affiliated with the Fox network. The station is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group, and has studios on Fleur Drive in Des Moines; its transmitter is located in Allem ...
(channel 17),
Des Moines, Iowa Des Moines () is the capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Iowa. It is also the county seat of Polk County. A small part of the city extends into Warren County. It was incorporated on September 22, 1851, as Fort Des Moines, ...
– affiliated with Fox† ** KOKH-TV (channel 25), Oklahoma City, Oklahoma – affiliated with Fox† **
WPMT WPMT, virtual channel 43 (Ultra high frequency, UHF digital terrestrial television, digital channel 36), is a Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox-network affiliate, affiliated television station city of license, licensed to York, Pennsylvania, United ...
(channel 43),
York, Pennsylvania York ( Pennsylvania Dutch: ''Yarrick''), known as the White Rose City (after the symbol of the House of York), is the county seat of York County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is located in the south-central region of the state. The populati ...
– affiliated with Fox **
WRLH-TV WRLH-TV (channel 35) is a television station in Richmond, Virginia, United States, affiliated with the Fox network. Owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group, it has studios on Westmoreland Street in the North Side area of Richmond, and its transmitte ...
(channel 35),
Richmond, Virginia (Thus do we reach the stars) , image_map = , mapsize = 250 px , map_caption = Location within Virginia , pushpin_map = Virginia#USA , pushpin_label = Richmond , pushpin_m ...
– affiliated with Fox† **
WQMY WQMY (channel 53) is a television station licensed to Williamsport, Pennsylvania, United States, serving Northeastern Pennsylvania as an affiliate of MyNetworkTV. It is owned by locally based New Age Media, LLC, alongside Hazleton-licensed Fox a ...
(channel 53),
Williamsport, Pennsylvania Williamsport is a city in, and the county seat of, Lycoming County, Pennsylvania, United States. It recorded a population of 27,754 at the 2020 Census. It is the principal city of the Williamsport Metropolitan Statistical Area, which has a popula ...
– affiliated with MyNetworkTV **
WXLV-TV WXLV-TV (channel 45) is a television station licensed to Winston-Salem, North Carolina, United States, serving as the ABC affiliate for the Piedmont Triad region. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group alongside Greensboro-licensed MyNetworkTV ...
(channel 45),
Greensboro, North Carolina Greensboro (; formerly Greensborough) is a city in and the county seat of Guilford County, North Carolina, United States. It is the third-most populous city in North Carolina after Charlotte and Raleigh, the 69th-most populous city in the Un ...
– affiliated with ABC† **
WXMI WXMI (channel 17) is a television station licensed to Grand Rapids, Michigan, United States, serving West Michigan as an affiliate of the Fox network. Owned by the E. W. Scripps Company, the station maintains studios on Plaza Drive (near M-37) o ...
(channel 17),
Grand Rapids, Michigan Grand Rapids is a city and county seat of Kent County, Michigan, Kent County in the U.S. state of Michigan. At the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city had a population of 198,917 which ranks it as the List of municipalities in Mi ...
– affiliated with Fox Also to have been transferred to Standard Media as part of the
Standard General Standard General L.P. is an American hedge fund headquartered in New York City. It was founded in 2007 by Soohyung "Soo" Kim and Nicholas Singer with seed capital from Reservoir Capital Group. Since 2013, Soo Kim has been the Managing Partner and ...
agreement would be the
local marketing agreement In North American broadcasting, a local marketing agreement (LMA), or local management agreement, is a contract in which one company agrees to operate a radio or television station owned by another party. In essence, it is a sort of lease or tim ...
s to Fox affiliate
WOLF-TV WOLF-TV (channel 56) is a television station licensed to Hazleton, Pennsylvania, United States, serving Northeastern Pennsylvania as an affiliate of the Fox network. It is the flagship property of locally based New Age Media, LLC, and is co-ow ...
(channel 56) in
Hazleton Hazleton may refer to: Places * Hazleton, British Columbia, Canada * Hazleton, Gloucestershire, a village in Gloucestershire, England ** Hazleton long barrows, Neolithic burial mounds at Hazleton, Gloucestershire, England ** Hazleton Abbey, a me ...
and CW affiliate
WSWB WSWB (channel 38) is a television station licensed to Scranton, Pennsylvania, United States, serving as the CW affiliate for Northeastern Pennsylvania. It is owned by MPS Media, which maintains a local marketing agreement (LMA) with New Age M ...
(channel 38) in
Scranton, Pennsylvania Scranton is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania, Lackawanna County. With a population of 76,328 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 U ...
, which were locally owned by New Age Media and operated alongside Sinclair-owned WQMY. (All three stations serve the Scranton–
Wilkes-Barre Wilkes-Barre ( or ) is a city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Luzerne County. Located at the center of the Wyoming Valley in Northeastern Pennsylvania, it had a population of 44,328 in the 2020 census. It is the secon ...
television market.)


Overview of proposed divestitures

To comply with
Department of Justice A justice ministry, ministry of justice, or department of justice is a ministry or other government agency in charge of the administration of justice. The ministry or department is often headed by a minister of justice (minister for justice in a v ...
antitrust and FCC ownership regulations (assuming a draft of the latter agency's media ownership review was unable to receive Congressional approval), Sinclair Broadcast Group was expected to likely be required to sell stations owned by either Tribune or Sinclair in up to twelve markets in order to address ownership conflicts associated with the Tribune acquisition. The most significant conflicts exist in
Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...
,
Salt Lake City Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the Capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Utah, most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the county seat, seat of Salt Lake County, Utah, Sal ...
,
Oklahoma City Oklahoma City (), officially the City of Oklahoma City, and often shortened to OKC, is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The county seat of Oklahoma County, it ranks 20th among United States cities in population, a ...
,
Harrisburg Harrisburg is the capital city of the Pennsylvania, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, Dauphin County. With a population of 50,135 as of the 2021 census, Harrisburg is the List of c ...
Lancaster
Lebanon Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south, while Cyprus li ...
York York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a ...
and
Grand Rapids Grand Rapids is a city and county seat of Kent County in the U.S. state of Michigan. At the 2020 census, the city had a population of 198,917 which ranks it as the second most-populated city in the state after Detroit. Grand Rapids is the ...
Kalamazoo Kalamazoo ( ) is a city in the southwest region of the U.S. state of Michigan. It is the county seat of Kalamazoo County. At the 2010 census, Kalamazoo had a population of 74,262. Kalamazoo is the major city of the Kalamazoo-Portage Metropolit ...
Battle Creek Battle Creek is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan, in northwest Calhoun County, at the confluence of the Kalamazoo and Battle Creek rivers. It is the principal city of the Battle Creek, Michigan Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), which encom ...
, where Sinclair and Tribune each have two stations that rank among the four highest-rated in terms of total viewership and maintain news departments. Other divestitures or signal reshuffling were likely to be required in
St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...
,
Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous co ...
,
Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...
/
Virginia Beach Virginia Beach is an independent city located on the southeastern coast of the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. The population was 459,470 at the 2020 census. Although mostly suburban in character, it is the most populous city ...
/
Hampton Hampton may refer to: Places Australia *Hampton bioregion, an IBRA biogeographic region in Western Australia *Hampton, New South Wales *Hampton, Queensland, a town in the Toowoomba Region *Hampton, Victoria Canada *Hampton, New Brunswick *Hamp ...
,
Greensboro Greensboro (; formerly Greensborough) is a city in and the county seat of Guilford County, North Carolina, United States. It is the third-most populous city in North Carolina after Charlotte and Raleigh, the 69th-most populous city in the Un ...
/
Winston-Salem Winston-Salem is a city and the county seat of Forsyth County, North Carolina, United States. In the 2020 census, the population was 249,545, making it the second-largest municipality in the Piedmont Triad region, the 5th most populous city in N ...
/ High Point,
Richmond Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, Virginia, the capital of Virginia, United States * Richmond, London, a part of London * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town in England * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, California, ...
,
Scranton Scranton is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania, Lackawanna County. With a population of 76,328 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 U ...
/
Wilkes-Barre Wilkes-Barre ( or ) is a city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Luzerne County. Located at the center of the Wyoming Valley in Northeastern Pennsylvania, it had a population of 44,328 in the 2020 census. It is the secon ...
and
Des Moines Des Moines () is the capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Iowa. It is also the county seat of Polk County. A small part of the city extends into Warren County. It was incorporated on September 22, 1851, as Fort Des Moines, ...
where ownership regulations would be violated (either because Sinclair already had or would have operational stewardship of three or more stations, or just two stations with too few independent station owners to permit a duopoly). Presumptive of the cap not being raised any further, Sinclair would also have to divest certain stations in non-conflict markets that would put its total reach over the current 39% coverage limit on national station ownership. (The enlarged group would effectively cover nearly 72% of the U.S., but would still reach over 45% coverage even with the UHF discount factored in.) Sinclair CEO Christopher Ripley stated that the company would consider full divestitures of any conflict stations to independent buyers (stating the markets where station divestitures were likeliest to occur, to comply with antitrust regulations on advertising share, are in Seattle, Scranton/Wilkes-Barre and Salt Lake City). On August 2, 2017, reports surfaced that Fox Television Stations was in talks with
Ion Media Ion Media (formerly known as Paxson Communications Corporation and Ion Media Networks) was an American broadcasting company that owned and operated over 71 television stations in most major American markets (through its television stations group ...
to create a
joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acces ...
that would own the respective stations of both groups. The partnership was said to include plans to shift Fox network affiliations from Sinclair stations to Ion-owned stations, such as those in which affiliation agreements were set to expire by the end of 2017. Fox was reportedly concerned about Sinclair's growing influence, and that its conservative syndicated news inserts would harm its cable news channel,
Fox News The Fox News Channel, abbreviated FNC, commonly known as Fox News, and stylized in all caps, is an American multinational conservative cable news television channel based in New York City. It is owned by Fox News Media, which itself is owne ...
. It had been suggested that the proposed partnership was meant to place pressure on Sinclair to divest some of the Fox stations owned by Sinclair and (especially) Tribune, because of the market share that it would have if the deal were to be consummated. The Ion stations have historically had little local staff, infrastructure, or programming, including local news (having terminated news share agreements that allowed them to rebroadcast newscasts from major network affiliates in their respective markets in July 2005 upon the rebranding of the former Pax TV to i: Independent Television, the brand preceded the network's January 2007 relaunch as
Ion Television Ion Television is an American broadcast television network owned by the Katz Broadcasting subsidiary of the E. W. Scripps Company. The network first began broadcasting on August 31, 1998, as Pax TV, focusing primarily on family-oriented enter ...
), leading an analyst to consider the plan unfeasible. Sinclair's stock prices slipped following the news. On October 19, 2017, Tribune Media shareholders approved the $3.9-billion acquisition by Sinclair. On November 29, 2017, it was reported that Sinclair Broadcast Group – which attempted to convince the Assistant Attorney General of the Department of Justice Antitrust Division,
Makan Delrahim Makan Delrahim (; born November 2, 1969) is an Iranian-American attorney and lobbyist. From 2017 to 2021, Delrahim served under President Donald Trump as Assistant Attorney General for the Department of Justice Antitrust Division. Early life a ...
, to relax rules pertaining to a broadcast television combination's total advertising share within a media market but was denied in their efforts – was reportedly close to a deal with the U.S. Department of Justice to sell thirteen unspecified television stations (although Sinclair had attempted to gain DOJ permission to divest only ten stations) as a condition of the approval for its $3.9 billion acquisition of Tribune Media. Nexstar Media Group,
Tegna Inc. Tegna Inc. (stylized in all caps as TEGNA) is an American publicly traded broadcast, digital media and marketing services company headquartered in Tysons Corner, Virginia. It was created on June 29, 2015, when the Gannett Company split into tw ...
and the
Meredith Corporation Meredith Corporation was an American media conglomerate based in Des Moines, Iowa, that owned magazines, television stations, websites, and radio stations. Its publications had a readership of more than 120 million and paid circulation of more ...
were among the groups that reportedly made offers to acquire the divested outlets.
Fox Television Stations Fox Television Stations, LLC (FTS; alternately Fox Television Stations Group, LLC), is a group of television stations located within the United States, which are owned-and-operated by the Fox Broadcasting Company, a subsidiary of the Fox Corp ...
(FTS) also was reported to have entered into negotiations to acquire between six and ten stations, among those involved in the DOJ consent agreement and/or those already owned by Sinclair or Tribune that are located in markets where neither groups' stations conflict with FCC rules (among them,
KCPQ KCPQ (channel 13) is a television station licensed to Tacoma, Washington, United States, broadcasting the Fox network to the Seattle area. It is owned and operated by the network's Fox Television Stations division alongside MyNetworkTV outlet K ...
and its MyNetworkTV-affiliated sister
KZJO KZJO (channel 22) is a television station in Seattle, Seattle, Washington, United States, broadcasting the MyNetworkTV programming service. It is owned-and-operated station, owned and operated by Fox Television Stations alongside Tacoma, Washin ...
in
Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...
, the former of which was earlier sought by Fox in 2014 in a failed attempt to leverage KCPQ's Fox affiliation in order to convince Tribune into selling as part of the group's attempt to expand its reach in markets with
NFL The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the major ...
franchises based in the
National Football Conference The National Football Conference (NFC) is one of the two conferences of the National Football League (NFL), the highest professional level of American football in the United States. The NFC and its counterpart, the American Football Conference ...
, to which the Fox network holds national broadcast television rights). On December 6, 2017, reports stated that FTS would purchase up to 10 Fox-affiliated stations from Sinclair (all in
NFL The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the major ...
markets), in order to allow the latter to reduce the acquisition's effects on its reach under national ownership cap limits. The deal would have purportedly included Tribune's Seattle duopoly of Fox affiliate KCPQ and MyNetworkTV affiliate KZJO, since Sinclair already owns ABC affiliate
KOMO-TV KOMO-TV (channel 4) is a television station in Seattle, Seattle, Washington, United States, affiliated with American Broadcasting Company, ABC. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group alongside Bellevue, Washington, Bellevue-licensed Univision a ...
(channel 4) and Univision affiliate KUNS-TV. Other Fox affiliates owned by either Sinclair or Tribune involving NFL markets include former O&Os in Cleveland (WJW), Denver (KDVR),
Kansas City The Kansas City metropolitan area is a bi-state metropolitan area anchored by Kansas City, Missouri. Its 14 counties straddle the border between the U.S. states of Missouri (9 counties) and Kansas (5 counties). With and a population of more ...
(
WDAF-TV WDAF-TV (channel 4) is a television station in Kansas City, Missouri, United States, affiliated with the Fox network. The station is owned by Nexstar Media Group, and maintains studios and transmitter facilities on Summit Street in the Signal Hi ...
, channel 4) and
Milwaukee Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at the 2020 census, Milwaukee is ...
(
WITI Witiness Chimoio João Quembo (born 26 August 1996), known as Witi, is a Mozambican professional footballer who plays for Portuguese club C.D. Nacional as a winger. Club career Born in Beira, Witi began his career with Sporting Club da Be ...
, channel 6) as well as stations in
Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...
(
WBFF WBFF (channel 45) is a television station in Baltimore, Maryland, United States, affiliated with Fox and MyNetworkTV. It is one of two flagship stations of Sinclair Broadcast Group (based in nearby Hunt Valley), alongside ABC affiliate WJLA-TV ...
, channel 45), Buffalo (
WUTV WUTV (channel 29) is a television station in Buffalo, New York, United States, affiliated with the Fox network. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group alongside MyNetworkTV affiliate WNYO-TV (channel 49). Both stations share studios on Hertel ...
, channel 29), Green Bay (
WLUK-TV WLUK-TV (channel 11) is a television station in Green Bay, Wisconsin, United States, affiliated with the Fox network. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group alongside Suring-licensed CW affiliate WCWF (channel 14). Both stations share studi ...
, channel 11),
Indianapolis Indianapolis (), colloquially known as Indy, is the state capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the seat of Marion County. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the consolidated population of Indianapolis and Marion ...
(
WXIN WXIN (channel 59) is a television station in Indianapolis, Indianapolis, Indiana, United States, affiliated with the Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox network. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group alongside Bloomington, Indiana, Bloomington-licensed C ...
, channel 59),
Nashville Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and the ...
(
WZTV WZTV (channel 17) is a television station in Nashville, Tennessee, United States, affiliated with Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox and The CW. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group alongside MyNetworkTV affiliate WUXP-TV (channel 30); it is also ...
, channel 17) and
Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...
(
WPGH-TV WPGH-TV (channel 53) is a television station in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States, affiliated with the Fox network. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group alongside MyNetworkTV affiliate WPNT (channel 22). Both stations share studios on Iv ...
, channel 53). Of these markets, only Milwaukee had overlapping properties operated by both Sinclair and Tribune that were in conflict with FCC regulations, as Sinclair owned CW affiliate
WVTV WVTV (channel 18) is a television station in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States, affiliated with The CW and owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group. The station's studios are located on Calumet Road in the Park Place office park near the I-41/US 45 ...
(channel 18) and MyNetworkTV affiliate WCGV (channel 24, which had its license terminated and intellectual assets merged into a
digital subchannel In broadcasting, digital subchannels are a method of transmitting more than one independent program stream simultaneously from the same digital radio or television station on the same radio frequency channel. This is done by using data compress ...
of WVTV through the sale of its broadcast spectrum through the
2017 spectrum incentive auction Seventeen or 17 may refer to: *17 (number), the natural number following 16 and preceding 18 * one of the years 17 BC, AD 17, 1917, 2017 Literature Magazines * ''Seventeen'' (American magazine), an American magazine * ''Seventeen'' (Japanese ...
); the Baltimore station, being Sinclair's
flagship A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of naval ships, characteristically a flag officer entitled by custom to fly a distinguishing flag. Used more loosely, it is the lead ship in a fleet of vessels, typically the fi ...
, likely would not have been sold in any event as the nearest Tribune properties to it were in Washington, D.C. (WDCW), Philadelphia (WPHL-TV) and Harrisburg (WPMT). FTS was also reported to be considering exchanging the
Orlando Orlando () is a city in the U.S. state of Florida and is the county seat of Orange County. In Central Florida, it is the center of the Orlando metropolitan area, which had a population of 2,509,831, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures rele ...
duopoly of
WOFL WOFL (channel 35) is a television station in Orlando, Florida, United States, airing programming from the Fox network. It is owned and operated by the network's Fox Television Stations division alongside MyNetworkTV outlet WRBW (channel 65). Bo ...
(channel 35) and
WRBW WRBW (channel 65), branded on-air as Fox 35 Plus, is a television station in Orlando, Florida, United States, airing programming from MyNetworkTV. It is owned and operated by Fox Television Stations alongside Fox outlet WOFL (channel 35). Both st ...
(channel 65) as well as
Ocala Ocala ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Marion County within the northern region of Florida, United States. As of the 2020 United States Census, the city's population was 63,591, making it the 54th most populated city in Florida. Home to ...
semi-satellite
WOGX WOGX (channel 51) is a television station licensed to Ocala, Florida, United States (in the Orlando market), but primarily serving the Gainesville area as an affiliate of the Fox network. Owned and operated by the network's Fox Television Statio ...
(channel 51) to Sinclair in return. After the Department of Justice approved the Sinclair–Tribune deal, it was reported that Fox would be purchasing KCPQ/KZJO in Seattle, and was at least interested in the Tribune-owned Fox affiliates in Cleveland, Denver, Kansas City, and
San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the List of United States cities by population, eigh ...
(
KSWB-TV KSWB-TV (channel 69) is a television station in San Diego, California, United States, affiliated with the Fox network. Owned by Nexstar Media Group, the station maintains studios on Engineer Road in the city's Kearny Mesa section, and its tran ...
, channel 69), as well as some of the other aforementioned Fox affiliates owned by Sinclair and Tribune. The then-ongoing acquisition of the 20th Century Fox film and television production units and certain related cable television assets by
The Walt Disney Company The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...
– which was precluded from acquiring the Fox network and Fox Television Stations as these properties were spun-off into
Fox Corporation Fox Corporation (stylized in all-caps as FOX Corporation) is a publicly traded American mass media company operated and controlled by media mogul Rupert Murdoch and headquartered at 1211 Avenue of the Americas in New York City. Incorporated ...
due to FCC local ownership restrictions as well as a rule barring common ownership of any two of the four major broadcast networks, as Disney already owned ABC and its eight owned-and-operated stations – would reportedly fund the acquisition of stations by Fox. On February 21, 2018, Sinclair informed the FCC that it would sell CW affiliate WPIX in New York City to Cunningham Broadcasting for a below market-value price of $15 million, receiving an option to acquire WPIX outright. It also announced that it planned to sell off Tribune-owned stations in Chicago (WGN-TV) and San Diego (KSWB-TV), while intending to seek waivers to purchase the Tribune stations in
Indianapolis Indianapolis (), colloquially known as Indy, is the state capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the seat of Marion County. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the consolidated population of Indianapolis and Marion ...
(WXIN and
CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainmen ...
affiliate
WTTV WTTV (channel 4), licensed to Bloomington, Indiana, United States, and WTTK (channel 29), licensed to Kokomo, Indiana, are television stations affiliated with CBS and serving the Indianapolis area. They are owned by Nexstar Media Group alongsid ...
hannel 4as well as its Kokomo-based satellite WTTK hannel 29,
South Central Pennsylvania South Central Pennsylvania is a region of the U.S. state of Pennsylvania that includes the fourteen counties of Adams, Cumberland, Dauphin, Franklin, Huntingdon, Juniata, Lancaster, Lebanon, Mifflin, Perry, Snyder, and York. Portions of west ...
(WPMT and CBS affiliate
WHP-TV WHP-TV (channel 21) is a television station licensed to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, United States, serving the Susquehanna Valley region as an affiliate of CBS, MyNetworkTV, and The CW. Owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group, the station has studio ...
hannel 21 and
North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...
's
Piedmont Triad The Piedmont Triad (or simply the Triad) is a metropolitan region in the north-central part of the U.S. state of North Carolina anchored by three cities: Greensboro, North Carolina, Greensboro, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Winston-Salem, and H ...
region (WXLV and Fox affiliate
WGHP WGHP (channel 8) is a television station licensed to High Point, North Carolina, United States, serving the Piedmont Triad region as an affiliate of the Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox network. The station is owned by Nexstar Media Group, and main ...
hannel 8 under relaxed rules that allowed for case-by-case acquisitions of two stations ranked among the top four in terms of overall viewership. Sinclair intended to enter into local marketing agreements to handle programming and advertising sales for WPIX and WGN-TV, and sell off KSWB outright to an independent third-party licensee. Overlapping stations in Seattle, St. Louis, Salt Lake City, Oklahoma City, Grand Rapids,
Richmond Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, Virginia, the capital of Virginia, United States * Richmond, London, a part of London * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town in England * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, California, ...
and
Des Moines, Iowa Des Moines () is the capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Iowa. It is also the county seat of Polk County. A small part of the city extends into Warren County. It was incorporated on September 22, 1851, as Fort Des Moines, ...
would be sold off to unaffiliated third parties. On February 28, 2018, Tribune announced the sale of WGN-TV to WGN-TV LLC (a
limited liability company A limited liability company (LLC for short) is the US-specific form of a private limited company. It is a business structure that can combine the pass-through taxation of a partnership or sole proprietorship with the limited liability of a ...
to have been controlled by Steven Fader, a
Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...
-based automotive executive with close business ties to Sinclair executive chairman Smith) for $60 million, intending to operate it under a master services agreement and receiving an option for Sinclair to buy WGN-TV outright within eight years. On April 24, 2018, Sinclair filed an amendment to the Tribune acquisition, withdrawing the sale of WPIX to Cunningham to acquire WPIX directly and proposing the sale of 22 other stations to both independent and affiliated third-party companies to comply with FCC and DOJ rules. CW affiliate KPLR-TV in St. Louis would be sold to the
Meredith Corporation Meredith Corporation was an American media conglomerate based in Des Moines, Iowa, that owned magazines, television stations, websites, and radio stations. Its publications had a readership of more than 120 million and paid circulation of more ...
(owner of CBS affiliate
KMOV KMOV (channel 4) is a television station in St. Louis, Missouri, United States, affiliated with CBS and MyNetworkTV. It is owned by Gray Television alongside low-power Circle owned-and-operated station KDTL-LD (channel 16). The two stations sh ...
, channel 4) for $65 million. Cunningham Broadcasting was to have acquired three stations in Dallas (KDAF), Houston (KIAH) and Seattle (KUNS-TV) for a combined $63.8 million; while Howard Stirk Holdings was to have acquired Sinclair stations in Seattle (KZJO) and Salt Lake City (KMYU) and a Tribune station in Oklahoma City (KAUT-TV) for a combined $4.95 million; and Standard Media – a broadcast holding company formed by
private equity firm A private equity firm is an investment management company that provides financial backing and makes investments in the private equity of startup or operating companies through a variety of loosely affiliated investment strategies including leve ...
Standard General Standard General L.P. is an American hedge fund headquartered in New York City. It was founded in 2007 by Soohyung "Soo" Kim and Nicholas Singer with seed capital from Reservoir Capital Group. Since 2013, Soo Kim has been the Managing Partner and ...
– would have bought seven stations from Sinclair in Oklahoma City (KOKH-TV),
Greensboro Greensboro (; formerly Greensborough) is a city in and the county seat of Guilford County, North Carolina, United States. It is the third-most populous city in North Carolina after Charlotte and Raleigh, the 69th-most populous city in the Un ...
(WXLV-TV), Richmond (WRLH-TV), Scranton-Wilkes-Barre (WQMY and master services agreements involving sister stations WSWB and WOLF-TV) and Des Moines (KDSM-TV), and two from Tribune in Grand Rapids (WXMI) and Harrisburg (WPMT) in a $441.1-million group deal. In four of the affected markets, Sinclair would have formed new duopolies or virtual triopolies involving existing stations that would have been separated from their existing duopoly partners and Tribune-owned stations in those markets: * In St. Louis, Sinclair would have directly acquired Tribune-owned Fox affiliate
KTVI KTVI (channel 2) is a television station in St. Louis, Missouri, United States, affiliated with the Fox network. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group alongside CW owned-and-operated station KPLR-TV (channel 11). Both stations share studios on B ...
(channel 2) to form a duopoly with ABC affiliate
KDNL-TV KDNL-TV (channel 30) is a television station in St. Louis, Missouri, United States, affiliated with ABC. Owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group, the station maintains studios on Cole Street in the Downtown West section of St. Louis, and its transmit ...
(channel 30); * in Portland, Sinclair would have directly acquired Tribune-owned CW affiliate
KRCW-TV KRCW-TV (channel 32) is a television station licensed to Salem, Oregon, United States, serving as the CW outlet for the Portland area. It is owned and operated by network majority owner Nexstar Media Group alongside CBS affiliate KOIN (chann ...
(channel 33) to form a duopoly with ABC affiliate
KATU KATU (channel 2) is a television station in Portland, Oregon, United States, affiliated with ABC. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group alongside La Grande–licensed Univision affiliate KUNP (channel 16). Both stations share studios on NE ...
(channel 2); * in Oklahoma City, Sinclair would have directly acquired Tribune-owned NBC affiliate
KFOR-TV KFOR-TV (channel 4) is a television station in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States, affiliated with NBC. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group alongside independent station KAUT-TV (channel 43). Both stations share studios in Oklahoma ...
(channel 4) to form a virtual triopoly involving CW affiliate
KOCB KOCB (channel 34) is a television station in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States, affiliated with The CW. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group alongside Fox affiliate KOKH-TV (channel 25). The stations' studios and transmitter facilities ...
(channel 34) and KAUT-TV, the latter of which Howard Stirk would lease operational rights to Sinclair under a shared services agreement; * and in Greensboro, Sinclair would have directly acquired Tribune-owned WGHP to form a duopoly with MyNetworkTV affiliate
WMYV WMYV (channel 48) is a television station licensed to Greensboro, North Carolina, United States, serving the Piedmont Triad region as an affiliate of MyNetworkTV. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group alongside Winston-Salem–licensed ABC aff ...
(channel 48). On May 9, 2018, Fox Television Stations confirmed that it would acquire Fox affiliates KCPQ in Seattle, KDVR in Denver, WJW in Cleveland, KTXL in Sacramento, KSWB-TV in San Diego and KSTU in Salt Lake City, and CW affiliate WSFL-TV in Miami for $910 million in cash and value stock. In exchange for the seven Tribune-owned Fox affiliates, Sinclair received options to purchase primary CW affiliate/secondary MyNetworkTV owned-and-operated station
WPWR-TV WPWR-TV (channel 50) is a television station licensed to Gary, Indiana, United States, broadcasting the MyNetworkTV programming service to the Chicago area. It is one of two commercial television stations in the Chicago market to be licensed in I ...
(channel 50) in Chicago and Fox owned-and-operated station KTBC (channel 7) in
Austin, Texas Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the county seat, seat and largest city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and Williamson County, Texas, Williamson co ...
from Fox Television Stations. (A purchase of KTBC would have resulted in an ownership conflict for Sinclair in Austin as the group already owns CBS affiliate
KEYE-TV KEYE-TV (channel 42) is a television station in Austin, Texas, United States, affiliated with CBS and Telemundo. Owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group, the station maintains studios on Metric Boulevard in North Austin and a transmitter on Waymake ...
hannel 42 which both fall within the FCC's top-four market viewership restrictions.) Amid objections by the Justice Department, Sinclair terminated the planned sale of KPLR to Meredith on May 15. (The termination of the sale likely resulted from similar viewership and advertising market conditions in St. Louis that scuttled a 2013 proposal by the
Gannett Company Gannett Co., Inc. () is an American mass media holding company headquartered in McLean, Virginia, in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area.Belo Corporation Belo Corporation was a Dallas-based media company that owned 20 commercial broadcasting television stations and three regional 24-hour cable news television channels. The company was previously known as A. H. Belo Corporation after one of the ...
and transfer its operations to Gannett under an LMA with NBC affiliate
KSDK KSDK (channel 5) is a television station in St. Louis, Missouri, United States, affiliated with NBC and owned by Tegna Inc. The station's studios are located on Market Street in Downtown St. Louis, and its transmitter is located in Shrewsbury, Mi ...
hannel 5) Sinclair disclosed it would instead put KPLR into a divestiture trust administered by Rafamedia LLC (managed by media broker Richard A. Foreman) for sale to an independent third party that would handle operational responsibilities. However, such a sale was ultimately hampered because the owner would have to operate KPLR as a standalone affiliate of The CW (the lowest-rated of the six English language commercial networks, whose affiliates are largely operated as part of duopolies with affiliates of one of the
Big Four television networks In the United States, there are three major traditional commercial broadcast television networks — CBS (Columbia Broadcasting System), NBC (National Broadcasting Company), and ABC (American Broadcasting Company) — that due to their longev ...
– ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC – as most CW stations tend to fall outside the "top-four" ratings threshold) and address local programming issues associated with its news operations being integrated with those of KTVI.


Criticism


Sinclair

The prospect of Sinclair acquiring Tribune Media's television and radio properties was met with consternation among media advocacy groups that were in opposition of the merger and employees with the Tribune stations concerned about the influence the group might have on their news content. A principal issue was the perceived politicized nature of some of the news and opinion segments that Sinclair produces internally and syndicates to its stations for inclusion in their local newscasts (both those produced by the stations directly and those produced under news share or shared services agreements with other Sinclair-operated stations or competing stations in certain markets). Sinclair has been producing syndicated news content for its television stations since January 2003, when it launched
News Central ''News Central'' is an American series of primetime newscast television programs on television stations owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group. The programs mixed locally produced news with nationally produced news and an opinion segment from S ...
, a concept through which it produced long-form national news and sports segments and shorter, localized weather segments originating from the group's Hunt Valley, Maryland headquarters for inclusion within local newscasts on the stations. Continuing after the dissolution of News Central in 2005, the company has also produced commentaries – presented first by Mark Hyman (through the opinion segments ''The Point'' and ''Behind the Headlines'') and later by
Boris Epshteyn Boris Epshteyn (born August 14, 1982) is a Russian-American Republican political strategist, investment banker, and attorney. He was a strategic advisor on the Donald Trump 2020 presidential campaign and has remained a close advisor to Trump in ...
(through his segment ''Bottom Line with Boris'') – that reflect a
conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...
perspective; the company also produces a segment, ''Terrorism Alert Desk'', which has been criticized for utilizing
Islamophobic Islamophobia is the fear of, hatred of, or prejudice against the religion of Islam or Muslims in general, especially when seen as a geopolitical force or a source of terrorism. The scope and precise definition of the term ''Islamophobia'' ...
stereotypes citing past stories that have focused on
Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...
s with no association with terrorism (such as a 2016 segment centering on a French law prohibiting
burkini A burkini (or burqini; portmanteau of burqa and bikini, though qualifying as neither of these garments) is a style of swimsuit for women. The suit covers the whole body except the face, the hands and the feet, while being light enough for swimm ...
s from being worn at public beaches within the country). Further attention to the content in the Sinclair-syndicated news segments was brought about in April 2018, when
Deadspin ''Deadspin'' is a sports blog founded by Will Leitch in 2005 and based in Chicago. Previously owned by Gawker Media and Univision Communications, it is currently owned by G/O Media. ''Deadspin'' posted daily previews, recaps, and commentaries of ...
released a compilation of promotions in which anchors from the group's local news departments and certain unaffiliated stations that maintain news share agreements with Sinclair-run stations read a promotional script disseminated by the company that critics noted had echoed
talking point A talking point, often used in the plural, is a pre-established message or formula used in the field of political communication, sales and commercial or advertising communication. The message is coordinated ''a priori'' to remain more or less inv ...
s long used by many conservatives (including President Donald Trump) and conservative-focused media outlets (including, most prominently, Fox News Channel) accusing the mainstream media of having a liberal slant in and fabricating their coverage, claiming that such an "agenda" is "dangerous to our democracy." (Critics of both mainstream media and the Republican Party in independent media have long criticized statements similar to those made in the promotions for being used as a form of conservative propaganda to delegitimize mainstream media platforms and limit their willingness to report on certain political matters in a factual and objective manner and, in turn, have accused mainstream outlets of being cowed into journalistic neutrality to avoid being perceived as having bias against conservatives.) These issues – along with the company's past history of producing specials critical of Democratic presidential candidates
John Kerry John Forbes Kerry (born December 11, 1943) is an American attorney, politician and diplomat who currently serves as the first United States special presidential envoy for climate. A member of the Forbes family and the Democratic Party (Unite ...
(in 2004) and
Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...
(planned for 2008, only to be scuttled amid pressure from interest groups that included those who opposed the Tribune purchase) – raised concerns that Sinclair would have the potential of persuading voters to support Republican presidential candidates in key
swing state In American politics, the term swing state (also known as battleground state or purple state) refers to any state that could reasonably be won by either the Democratic or Republican candidate in a statewide election, most often referring to pre ...
s, creating a disadvantage over their Democratic Party competitors. Some of the Tribune markets where Sinclair would have entered through the deal have predominate voter support of Democratic candidates in national and local elections, with the exception of some outlying areas in some of the affected cities that tend to lean conservative. (Some Sinclair stations in liberal-leaning markets, such as ABC affiliate
KOMO-TV KOMO-TV (channel 4) is a television station in Seattle, Seattle, Washington, United States, affiliated with American Broadcasting Company, ABC. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group alongside Bellevue, Washington, Bellevue-licensed Univision a ...
in Seattle, have opted to put the commentary and ''Terrorism Alert Desk'' segments in lower-profile time slots or immediately preceding or following commercial breaks to blend in with commercial spots.) Observers also expressed concern that the expansion of partisan content by Sinclair into new markets could worsen existing distrust of American media organizations to local media, which has maintained higher ratings of trustworthiness among the general public over national media in large part because of their localized focus and tendency to forego political opinion. Opponents of the deal have pointed out that if approved, the deal would create an oligarchy in the broadcast television industry – through which Sinclair and Nexstar Media Group, which has a station portfolio of similar size and has historically used outsourcing agreements to acquire and operate stations it cannot legally own directly as Sinclair historically has done as well, would run a large share of the local television stations operating in the United States – and may lead to more consolidation, including among the Big Four television networks (ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC) in order to expand their own respective O&O groups, leading to the networks adopting a similar model to their Canadian counterparts in that the majority of their stations are owned-and-operated with only a few
affiliates In the broadcasting industry (particularly in North America, and even more in the United States), a network affiliate or affiliated station is a local broadcaster, owned by a company other than the owner of the network, which carries some or al ...
. (Unlike in Canada, which has considerably fewer densely populated areas and media markets than the U.S., such a move would be unfeasible as it would necessitate the piecemeal breakup of station groups based on network affiliation in the majority, if not all, of the 210 American media markets, likely tacking on heavy amounts of debt for the parent companies of all four networks. It would also necessitate the breakup of companies like Sinclair and Nexstar to be able to allow such consolidation even in a downscaled manner.) In addition to Fox purchasing stations as part of the Sinclair–Tribune deal,
CBS Corporation The second incarnation of CBS Corporation (the first being a short-lived rename of the Westinghouse Electric Corporation) was an American multinational media conglomerate with interests primarily in commercial broadcasting, publishing, and t ...
CEO
Leslie Moonves Leslie Roy Moonves (; born October 6, 1949) is an American media executive who was the chairman and CEO of CBS Corporation from 2003 until his resignation in September 2018 following numerous allegations of sexual harassment, sexual assault and ...
stated it would purchase more stations if ownership caps were lifted. The concerns about Sinclair potentially led public interest groups to file petitions to block the FCC reinstatement of the UHF discount in an end-run to stop the merger, as the rule would artificially reduce cap space under national group ownership limits to allow Sinclair to acquire Tribune stations in most of the markets where that group has broadcast properties. On June 1, 2017, the
District of Columbia Court of Appeals The District of Columbia Court of Appeals is the highest court of the District of Columbia, in the United States. Established in 1970, it is equivalent to a state supreme court, except that its authority is derived from the United States Congr ...
issued a seven-day administrative stay to the UHF discount rulemaking, in order to allow review of an emergency stay motion filed by The Institute for Public Representation (a coalition of public interest groups comprising Free Press, the
United Church of Christ The United Church of Christ (UCC) is a mainline Protestant Christian denomination based in the United States, with historical and confessional roots in the Congregational, Calvinist, Lutheran, and Anabaptist traditions, and with approximately 4 ...
, Media Mobilizing Project, the
Prometheus Radio Project The Prometheus Radio Project is a non-profit advocacy and community organizing group with a mission to resist corporate media consolidation and radio homogenization in the United States.Hill, Ricky. "Prometheus Radio Project (United States)." ''En ...
, the
National Hispanic Media Coalition The National Hispanic Media Coalition (NHMC) is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) civil rights organization that was founded to eliminate hate, discrimination, and racism towards the Latino community. NHMC collaborates with other social justice organizations ...
and
Common Cause Common Cause is a watchdog group based in Washington, D.C., with chapters in 35 states. It was founded in 1970 by John W. Gardner, a Republican, who was the former Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare in the administration of President L ...
) on May 15. The coalition argued that the UHF discount was no longer logical from a technical standpoint (as stations that transmit on the UHF band have typically maintained better digital signal quality than those transmitting on VHF, a reversal of the technical issues with both bands during the analog era) and would trigger a wave of
mergers and acquisitions Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are business transactions in which the ownership of companies, other business organizations, or their operating units are transferred to or consolidated with another company or business organization. As an aspect ...
in the broadcast television industry that would further reduce diversity in station ownership, with particular disadvantages to the abilities of females and ethnic minorities to acquire local broadcast media. The D.C. Court of Appeals denied the emergency stay motion on June 15, 2017, though it is still subject to a pending court proceeding to appeal the UHF discount implementation.


Ajit Pai

FCC chairman
Ajit Pai Ajit Varadaraj Pai (; born January 10, 1973) is an American lawyer who served as chairman of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) from 2017 to 2021. He has been a partner at the private-equity firm Searchlight Capital since April 20 ...
's relaxed scrutiny on outsourcing agreements raised concerns by opponents of the deal – most notably by then-
House Minority Leader Party leaders of the United States House of Representatives, also known as floor leaders, are congresspeople who coordinate legislative initiatives and serve as the chief spokespersons for their parties on the House floor. These leaders are ele ...
Nancy Pelosi Nancy Patricia Pelosi (; ; born March 26, 1940) is an American politician who has served as Speaker of the United States House of Representatives since 2019 and previously from 2007 to 2011. She has represented in the United States House of ...
and
House Committee on Energy and Commerce The Committee on Energy and Commerce is one of the oldest standing committees of the United States House of Representatives. Established in 1795, it has operated continuously—with various name changes and jurisdictional changes—for more tha ...
ranking member
Frank Pallone Frank Joseph Pallone Jr. (; born October 30, 1951) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the U.S. representative for , serving since 1988. He is a member of the Democratic Party. The district, numbered as the 3rd district from 1988 to 1 ...
in a letter they co-authored in advance of the FCC's vote on April 20, 2017, which reinstated the UHF discount – that Sinclair could choose to retain the conflict stations through its partner companies, potentially eliminating an independent news voice in those markets. On October 24, 2017, the FCC Commissioner's Board, in a 3–1 vote passed by the board's conservative majority, eliminated a rule (dating to 1934) that required broadcast station groups to maintain a physical presence in the community of their primary local coverage areas, a move that would help media companies further consolidate their operations and potentially assist Sinclair Broadcast Group's media ambitions. Such a rule also sparked concerns by some interest groups that it would allow Sinclair to outsource news production and personnel to out-of-market stations that would be acquired through the Tribune purchase. In November 2017, two Democratic members of the U.S. House of Representatives,
John Conyers John James Conyers Jr. (May 16, 1929October 27, 2019) was an American politician of the Democratic Party who served as a U.S. representative from Michigan from 1965 to 2017. The districts he represented always included part of western Detroit. ...
( Mich.) and
David Cicilline David Nicola Cicilline (; born July 15, 1961) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the U.S. representative for since 2011. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the 36th mayor of Providence from 2003 to 2011, the first openly ...
( R.I.), asked David L. Hunt, the inspector general of the FCC, to investigate whether Pai's legislative actions regarding the relaxation of broadcast ownership rules were biased in favor of Sinclair. The FCC, under Pai, undertook a number of actions that the legislators believe would benefit Sinclair – which has lobbied for such changes for several years – including rolling back certain broadcast television station ownership limitations (including allowing exceptions to duopoly rules that forbid common ownership of two television stations in the same market if both are among the four highest-rated or if such a combination would dilute independent media voices, reinstating a 1985 discount quota on UHF stations repealed two years earlier by Wheeler and his Democratic-led majority, a requirement dating to the FCC's inception for broadcast outlets to maintain office operations within the community of their primary local coverage areas, and removing ownership attribution rules applying to joint sales and shared services agreements). The issues concerning Pai's legislative efforts also drew attention to efforts by Sinclair to ingratiate itself with the Trump administration in the weeks leading up to Trump's January 2017 inauguration, as analyzed in an August 2017 ''
New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'' article. The article reported that Trump adviser and son-in-law
Jared Kushner Jared Corey Kushner (born January 10, 1981) is an American businessman and investor. He served as a senior advisor to 45th U.S. president Donald Trump, his father-in-law. Since leaving the White House, Kushner founded Affinity Partners, a pri ...
had arranged an agreement with Sinclair to have reporters from the group's stations interview Trump with the provision that they do not challenge any inaccurate statements, and that Sinclair representatives had met with Pai prior to his expected promotion to agency chief to replace colleague and former FCC Commissioner Tom Wheeler to discuss his deregulatory policies and had given Pai a list of deregulatory actions that they wanted Pai and his soon-to-be conservative FCC majority to enact (including many of the regulations, such as the UHF discount reinstatement and ownership relaxations, that the FCC approved under his leadership). A spokeswoman for Pai said "the request appears to be part of many Democrats' attempt to target one particular company because of its perceived political views... . Any claim that Chairman Pai is modifying the rules now to benefit one particular company is completely baseless."


Termination of transaction and subsequent history

On July 16, 2018, Pai was reported to have "serious concerns" about the merger – particularly regarding whether Sinclair was upfront about its intentions to sell certain conflict properties in its sale applications – and proposed to have the deal be given a hearing before an
administrative law judge An administrative law judge (ALJ) in the United States is a judge and trier of fact who both presides over trials and adjudicates claims or disputes involving administrative law. ALJs can administer oaths, take testimony, rule on questions of evid ...
, which the FCC Commissioner's Board voted to remand the merger review toward on July 18. U.S. President
Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pe ...
– who employed Sinclair commentator Boris Epshteyn as a foreign policy adviser for his
2016 presidential campaign This national electoral calendar for 2016 lists the national/federal elections held in 2016 in all sovereign states and their dependent territories. By-elections are excluded, though national referendums are included. January *7 January: Kir ...
– spoke in favor of the Sinclair-Tribune deal on July 25, calling the FCC's move to refer the deal to an administrative law judge "so sad and unfair" and "disgraceful" and stating the Sinclair-Tribune merger could provide a "conservative voice for and of the people" over the
Comcast Comcast Corporation (formerly known as American Cable Systems and Comcast Holdings),Before the AT&T merger in 2001, the parent company was Comcast Holdings Corporation. Comcast Holdings Corporation now refers to a subsidiary of Comcast Corpora ...
's acquisition of
NBCUniversal NBCUniversal Media, LLC is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate corporation owned by Comcast and headquartered at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, United States. NBCUniversal is primari ...
in 2011. Despite facing the prospect of having to appear before an administrative law judge to defend the deal, Sinclair, on August 8, 2018, during its second-quarter earnings call, announced its intention to attempt to complete the deal, with the parties free to walk away after midnight. However, the following day (August 9), Tribune Media announced that it had terminated the sale agreement with Sinclair, intending to seek other M&A opportunities; it also filed a
breach of contract Breach of contract is a legal cause of action and a type of civil wrong, in which a binding agreement or bargained-for exchange is not honored by one or more of the parties to the contract by non-performance or interference with the other party ...
lawsuit against Sinclair in the
Delaware Court of Chancery The Delaware Court of Chancery is a court of equity in the American state of Delaware. It is one of Delaware's three constitutional courts, along with the Supreme Court and Superior Court. Since 2018, the court consists of seven judges. The chi ...
, seeking $1 billion in damages for "repeatedly and willfully breach ngits contractual obligations in spectacular fashion". Tribune cited violations of the sale agreement in regards to divestiture of stations, including "belligerent and unnecessarily protracted negations" with the Department of Justice and FCC in an effort to maintain control of stations that it had been advised to divest, and violating conditions barring divestitures from attracting "even the threat" of regulatory scrutiny. If the lawsuit by Tribune is unsuccessful, Tribune would owe Sinclair a $135 million break-up fee. Nineteen days later, on August 28, Sinclair responded to the Tribune Media lawsuit by countersuing Tribune for $1 billion in a filing in the same chancery court. With the deal terminated, the sale of stations to Cunningham, Fox, Meredith and Standard General, which was to have been a sale from Sinclair to those entities (as those all involved Tribune stations) as well as the sales of its stations (and LMAs) to Howard Stirk were also terminated. Fox, however, would eventually trade its Charlotte stations (
WJZY WJZY (channel 46) is a television station licensed to Belmont, North Carolina, United States, serving as the Fox affiliate for the Charlotte area. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group alongside Rock Hill, South Carolina–licensed MyNetworkTV affil ...
and WMYT) to
Nexstar Media Group Nexstar Media Group, Inc. is an American publicly traded media company with headquarter offices in Irving, Texas; Midtown Manhattan; and Chicago, Illinois. The company is the largest television station owner in the United States, owning 197 te ...
for the former Tribune Broadcasting stations in Seattle (
KCPQ KCPQ (channel 13) is a television station licensed to Tacoma, Washington, United States, broadcasting the Fox network to the Seattle area. It is owned and operated by the network's Fox Television Stations division alongside MyNetworkTV outlet K ...
and
KZJO KZJO (channel 22) is a television station in Seattle, Seattle, Washington, United States, broadcasting the MyNetworkTV programming service. It is owned-and-operated station, owned and operated by Fox Television Stations alongside Tacoma, Washin ...
) and Milwaukee (
WITI Witiness Chimoio João Quembo (born 26 August 1996), known as Witi, is a Mozambican professional footballer who plays for Portuguese club C.D. Nacional as a winger. Club career Born in Beira, Witi began his career with Sporting Club da Be ...
), with Fox paying $350 million for the three stations and Nexstar paying $45 million for the Charlotte stations, in a deal completed on March 2, 2020. All three stations acquired by Fox were initially intended to be acquired from Sinclair in the aforementioned side deals. On December 3, 2018, four months after Tribune aborted the Sinclair acquisition, Sinclair rival Nexstar Media Group announced that it would finally seek to acquire Tribune, raising its purchase offer to $4.1 billion (plus $2.3 billion in debt, less debt than Sinclair would have assumed had its deal been successful), totaling the value of the all-cash deal at $6.4 billion and representing a 15.5% premium of Tribune's valuation on the day the transaction was announced. Unlike the Sinclair-Tribune deal, opposition to Nexstar's purchase of Tribune has been limited, despite the similar broadcast oligopoly concerns raised in the Sinclair acquisition applying to the Nexstar purchase; Nexstar has also tended to focus around local content with the only nationally syndicated news content produced by the group being more traditional in nature (consisting only of reports filed by its Washington, D.C. news bureau). Nexstar intended to sell off stations in 13 of 15 markets where the two companies' station clusters would conflict; the group announced the sale of 19 Nexstar and Tribune stations to
McLean MacLean, also spelt Maclean and McLean, is a Goidelic languages, Gaelic surname Mac Gille Eathain, or, Mac Giolla Eóin in Irish language, Irish Gaelic), Eóin being a Gaelic form of Johannes (John (given name), John). The clan surname is an A ...
,
Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...
-based
Tegna Inc. Tegna Inc. (stylized in all caps as TEGNA) is an American publicly traded broadcast, digital media and marketing services company headquartered in Tysons Corner, Virginia. It was created on June 29, 2015, when the Gannett Company split into tw ...
and the
Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...
-based
E. W. Scripps Company The E. W. Scripps Company is an American broadcasting company founded in 1878 as a chain of daily newspapers by Edward Willis "E. W." Scripps and his sister, Ellen Browning Scripps. It was also formerly a media conglomerate. The company is he ...
on March 20, 2019, in separate deals worth $1.32 billion. (Of the stations sold, only WPIX was not part of an ownership conflict, likely being sold as its transmission over a VHF digital channel assignment, given that the New York City market accounts for 6.44% of all U.S. television households according to Nielsen market tabulations, precludes its applications under the UHF discount and would put Nexstar over the 39% national ownership cap.) Nexstar's purchase of Tribune was valued at a higher price than Sinclair was willing to pay. Despite the Nexstar deal, Tribune and Sinclair continued their respective lawsuits against one another, although a planned hearing by an administrative law judge was cancelled in February 2019 per the grant of a request by Sinclair and the FCC. On August 1, 2019, the Nexstar acquisition of Tribune Media was approved by the
United States Department of Justice The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a federal executive department of the United States government tasked with the enforcement of federal law and administration of justice in the United State ...
. The deal was approved by the FCC on September 16, 2019 and was completed on September 19, 2019. Nine months after the unsuccessful bid to buy Tribune, Sinclair announced its intention instead to buy
Fox Sports Networks Fox Sports Networks (FSN), formerly known as Fox Sports Net, was the collective name for a group of regional sports channels in the United States. Formed in 1996 by News Corporation, the networks were acquired by The Walt Disney Company on Mar ...
and
Fox College Sports Stadium College Sports (formerly Fox College Sports) is a group of three American sports networks. Owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group and Entertainment Studios (under the joint venture Diamond Sports Group), the three channels air college and high ...
from
The Walt Disney Company The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...
, which was ordered to divest the networks as part of the agreement to allow the acquisition of most Fox assets by Disney, for $10.6 billion. That transaction did not include the
YES Network The Yankee Entertainment and Sports Network (YES) is an American pay television regional sports network owned by Yankee Global Enterprises (the largest shareholder with 26%), Sinclair Broadcast Group and Entertainment Studios (which owns 20%), A ...
, although in a separate transaction, Sinclair holding a 20% stake in that channel, being reacquired by team ownership pursuant to a prior
right of first refusal Right of first refusal (ROFR or RFR) is a contractual right that gives its holder the option to enter a business transaction with the owner of something, according to specified terms, before the owner is entitled to enter into that transaction ...
. The lawsuit between Sinclair and Nexstar (having inherited the action from Tribune) was finally settled in early 2020, with Sinclair paying Nexstar $60 million, and transferring ownership of
WDKY-TV WDKY-TV (channel 56) is a television station licensed to Danville, Kentucky, United States, serving the Lexington area as an affiliate of the Fox network. The station is owned by Nexstar Media Group and maintains studios on Euclid Avenue in Le ...
and the non-license assets of
KGBT-TV KGBT-TV (channel 4) is a television station licensed to Harlingen, Texas, United States, serving the Lower Rio Grande Valley as a primary Antenna TV owned-and-operated station and a secondary MyNetworkTV affiliate. It is owned by Nexstar Media ...
(including the CBS affiliation to a
KVEO-TV KVEO-TV (channel 23) is a television station licensed to Brownsville, Texas, United States, serving the Lower Rio Grande Valley as a dual affiliate of NBC and CBS. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group alongside Harlingen-licensed primary Ante ...
subchannel) to Nexstar. On May 7, 2020, Sinclair was fined $48 million to settle investigations related to reports and statements made to the FCC. In August 2020, Sinclair reached a $25 million settlement agreement for its shareholders related to three lawsuits. Of the $25 million, $20.5 million will be paid into a settlement fund.


References

{{SBGI Sinclair Broadcast Group Attempted mergers and acquisitions 2017 mergers and acquisitions