Sinclair deal for Allbritton TV stations approved

Federal regulators on Thursday announced their approval of Sinclair Broadcast Group's $985 million purchase of Allbritton TV stations.

The stations include seven ABC network affiliates that cover nearly 5% of U.S. TV households and NewsChannel 8, a 24-hour cable and satellite news network covering the Washington, D.C., area.

"Very mixed emotions: FCC approved sale of our TV stations to Sinclair," tweeted Allbritton Communications CEO Robert Allbritton Thursday. "Thanks to all at ACC for 40 wonderful years. I will miss you deeply".

In the past 2½ years, Sinclair nearly doubled its portfolio of TV stations to 108 from 58, becoming the largest U.S. broadcaster in terms of number of stations. It will own and operate 149 stations when its pending deals are completed. It had to amend the Allbritton deal, originally proposed in June 2013, to meet the approval of the Federal Communications Commission.

The FCC said that Sinclair would give up some stations in Birmingham, Ala., Harrisburg, Pa., and Charleston, S.C., where it already owns stations. Sinclair will sell the Harrisburg station to Media General and will give up licenses in Birmingham and Charleston. It will multicast the content currently on those stations on the stations it retains.

Sinclair also must end a sharing agreement in Charleston, S.C., under the FCC order. Opponents to the original proposal told the FCC that Sinclair's planned shared service agreements in those markets where it had more than one station circumvented the intent of media ownership rules.

The final transaction "exemplifies the careful scrutiny the Bureau will provide to broadcast transactions that propose new combinations of sharing arrangements and financial entanglements between a dominant licensee and a so-called sidecar entity," said FCC media bureau chief William Lake in a statement. "The Media Bureau has demonstrated clearly that it will not allow such combined arrangements to undermine the local TV ownership rule, which is in place to ensure competition and diverse voices on the airwaves."

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