FCC Approves $512,000 Per Station Retrans Penalty
The full FCC voted to impose a per station penalty of $512,228 against 14 broadcasters and a reduced $30,000 penalty against another over violations of good faith negotiation rules in retransmission consent negotiations with AT&T and subsidiary DirecTV. The 4-0 heavily redacted forfeiture order was released Wednesday afternoon.
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The stations involved are affiliated with Sinclair through service agreements, although the agency noted that that company isn't party to this batch of fines. This is “a step in the right direction,” LightShed's Richard Greenfield tweeted, in response to our earlier report. Sinclair “has been a bad actor in retransmission consent battles for years -- great to see FCC cracking down on Sinclair's abuse.”
“While together these agreements give Sinclair a relationship with, and stake in the success of, each of the Defendant Stations, Sinclair itself is not a party to this proceeding,” said the order. Sinclair didn’t comment right away, and an outside spokesperson for the company also said it's not a party to the proceeding. The violations involve a total of 18 stations and concern “unreasonably delaying” retrans negotiations and failing to respond to proposals from the MVPDs.
All the stations were represented by Duane Lammers of MAX Retrans, and the forfeiture stems from a 2020 notice of apparent liability. He declined to comment.
The broadcasters include several companies affiliated with Deerfield Media, MPS Media, GoCom Media and KMTR Television. The several TV stations we called said their general managers and other personnel weren't available to answer questions immediately.
AT&T applauds “imposing the statutory maximum penalty on broadcast stations who deliberately violated the Commission’s good faith negotiation rules, causing lengthy and unnecessary TV blackouts,” a spokesperson emailed. “We are hopeful that today’s ruling sends a strong message to broadcasters to knock off this anti-consumer behavior.”