Blocking Standard/Tegna Would Chill Investment, Kim Tells Sen. Warren
An FCC rejection of the Standard General/Tegna transaction would “have a chilling effect on future investment in this sector, particularly for minority owners and sources of financing,” said Standard Managing Partner Soohyung Kim Friday in a letter to Sen. Elizabeth…
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Warren, D-Mass. Warren had urged FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel to block the deal in a letter last week (see 2301120044). Kim asked Warren for a meeting at her earliest convenience and pushed back on her comments that concessions offered by Standard on avoiding layoffs and higher retransmission consent rates wouldn’t be effective. “The binding commitments we have made, and some have questioned, are not deviations from our strategy -- they are formal affirmations of it,” Kim said. He also committed not to enter any sharing agreements with Cox Media Group stations. CMG is owned by Apollo Global Management, which is also a participant in the Standard/Tegna deal. Standard committed to keeping newsroom jobs while saying that blocking the deal would leave Tegna “subject to the intense pressure of the public markets to cut costs as the economy slows,” Kim said. Warren and federal regulators should take into account that the deal would make Standard the nation’s largest minority- and women-owned broadcaster, Kim said. “If that fact means nothing to regulators in their public interest assessment,” other minority entrepreneurs are less likely to enter the business, he said. “We appreciate Sen. Warren’s concerns and are confident that through our binding commitments and the fundamentals of this transaction we have more than addressed them,” said a Standard spokesperson. “We will continue to work with the FCC and DOJ as they seek to conclude their review and we look forward to building a local broadcasting company that will serve all the communities in which we will operate.”