1 month ago
The $6.2 cardinal merger of Nexstar and Tegna, a game-changing woody poised to reshape nan media business, has been connected nan lips of galore NAB Show attendees this week. But a sheet Monday day pinch 3 FCC officials asked to explicate nan commission’s reappraisal of nan transaction yielded fewer answers.
Even though nan FCC and Department of Justice antitrust section some approved nan transaction and Nexstar declared it to beryllium closed, paying disconnected Tegna and its shareholders, a suit by DirecTV connected antitrust crushed has gained abrupt traction. A national judge past Friday issued a preliminary injunction blocking nan deal. Nexstar has vowed to entreaty nan lawsuit to nan Ninth Circuit national appellate court.
At nan NAB panel, moderator Larry Walke, subordinate wide counsel for nan broadcast lobbying group, asked a drawstring of questions astir nan events of nan past respective weeks. He asked whether nan FCC’s action established a template for early mergers. He besides wondered if nan FCC really has nan authority to make changes to nan headdress and past OK a woody nether rules it has changed. The headdress is portion of a Congressional act, and FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez and galore different stakeholders person based on that nan FCC should not beryllium permitted to do it.
“That’s an progressive proceeding, and I’m not going to really remark connected nan constituent of it,” replied David Brown, Division Chief of nan FCC’s Video Division. “I’m OK pinch nan question, but I deliberation that from a bureau perspective, you tin look astatine nan Nexstar-Tegna merger order, we talk ineligible authority there. I deliberation that’s an meticulous connection of wherever nan bureau is. I’m not going to speak for nan president aliases what yet will travel out.”
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, a dogged Donald Trump loyalist who has many times called for eliminating nan cap, is not astatine this year’s NAB Show. For decades, nan confab has been a mounting wherever nan heads of nan FCC and nan DOJ’s antitrust section stock nan shape pinch nan caput of nan NAB to clasp bipartisan discussions of manufacture matters. This year, amid amped-up rhetoric by Carr astir a scope of issues, including nan national equal-time provision, broadcast licence renewals and different topics, those conversations person gone by nan wayside.
Deputy Bureau Chiefs Evan Morris and Alexander Sanjenis followed Brown’s lead and mentioned aggregate times their inability to speak connected Carr’s behalf. They did measurement successful connected caller FCC inquiries into sports shifting from broadcast to streaming, ATSC 3.0 and different topics, and nan tenor of nan speech was convivial, reflecting Washington’s cozy regulatory circles. Still, recent disapproval voiced by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and others of nan FCC for having its Media Bureau constitute an bid approving nan Nexstar-Tegna transaction arsenic opposed to putting nan woody to a committee vote, did look germane aft nan hour-and-20-minute NAB session.
Before nan FCC officials took nan stage, Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Charlie Beller delivered prepared remarks astir nan media regularisation landscape. He didn’t mention nan Nexstar-Tegna transaction aliases immoderate circumstantial deal, opting alternatively to enactment successful nan conceptual zone.
The DOJ’s antitrust section was criticized by U.S. District Judge Troy Nunley successful nan suit by DirecTV for not being much vocal successful raising what nan judge deemed to beryllium clear antitrust issues successful nan deal. The operation would create a position elephantine astir double nan size of immoderate erstwhile one, pinch nan decades-old norm limiting a azygous owner’s power of stations to 39% of U.S. households fundamentally going retired nan window. In a anterior section TV mega-deal, Nexstar’s acquisition of Tribune Media successful 2019, during Trump’s first term, DOJ weighed successful forcefully, requiring nan institution to divest of a number of stations.
Without alluding specifically to Nexstar-Tegna, Beller articulated nan DOJ’s position of nan broadcast sector, which has been cited successful favorable opinions astir nan merger. “Broadcast companies are competing successful a world pinch much distribution options than ever before,” he said. At nan aforesaid time, he continued, “broadcast is neither insulated from title nor applicable to it”
