Sinclair, Tribune Promising Faster ATSC 3.0 Rollout, More Local Coverage
Sinclair's proposed buy of Tribune broadcast outlets would boost its operational efficiencies and let Sinclair upgrade the stations’ facilities and expand the stations’ local coverage, thus offering more value to MVPDs, and increase syndicated and original programming offerings, they said…
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in public interest statement filed at the FCC Friday. They also said the deal will let Sinclair "be better able to develop greater strategic complements to its current broadcast operations," such as more digital content offerings and a faster rollout of an ATSC 3.0 network. The filing listed investments Sinclair has made in stations it bought in recent years from Fisher Broadcasting and Allbritton. The companies said they both own full-power TV stations in 12 designated market areas, and that in 10 of them FCC rules preclude Sinclair buying the Tribune licenses. Those 10 are Seattle-Tacoma, Washington; St. Louis; Portland, Oregon; Salt Lake City; Oklahoma City; Greensboro-High Point-Winston-Salem, North Carolina; Grand Rapids-Kalamazoo-Battle Creek, Michigan; Harrisburg-Lancaster-Lebanon-York, Pennsylvania; Richmond-Petersburg, Virginia; and Des Moines-Ames, Iowa. They also said Tribune has a legal duopoly in Indianapolis but FCC rules preclude Sinclair buying the Tribune licenses there. They said Tribune owns multiple licenses in Washington, D.C., Milwaukee, New Orleans and Denver, but FCC rules would allow Sinclair purchase of the licenses there. They also said, without divestitures, Sinclair would have an audience reach exceeding the 39 percent cap under the national TV television ownership rule, but they "intend to take such actions as necessary to comply." Sinclair said it favored station swaps over station sales in the $6.6 billion deal (see 1705080018).