Dish has sent the FCC a term sheet it says backs up the claim, cited in a story in Broadcasting + Cable, that Cox Media Group wanted to include both Standard General and Tegna stations in retrans talks. Standard General is trying to get the FCC to sign off on its $8 billion-plus deal to acquire the Tegna stations. It has told the FCC it will not bundle Cox and Tegna stations in retrans talks and Cox has disputed the Dish claim, saying it never has and never will try to do so.
The long-anticipated Standard General-Tegna merger won’t be happening before the new year, as the FCC has requested another round of comments concerning the deal. The request came shortly after Standard General announced a series of formal commitments to ease regulators’ concerns about how the $8.6 billion merger would affect journalism jobs and retransmission consent agreements.
Comcast and Standard General have struck an agreement confirming Standard General’s pledge to the FCC that it would agree not to raise the retransmission consent rates of Tegna stations charged to MVPDs to that of its Cox Media Group TV stations — if applicable — after the closing of its deal to buy those Tegna stations. That is according to Standard General, which said the agreement on not raising the rates was reached this week with Comcast, which is the largest cable group carrying Tegna stations.
The seemingly never-ending FCC review of the Standard General-Tegna merger will continue into the New Year. The FCC has sought comment on Standard General’s latest attempts to get the commission to sign off on the deal and has given commenters until Jan. 20, after which it must vet those comments, meaning the FCC likely won’t be making any decision until at least early February (to demonstrate that it vetted those latest comments before making its decision).
Standard General is trying hard to get its Tegna deal done by year-end. The FCC is currently on day 246 of its unofficial 180-day shot clock for vetting mergers. In a letter to the FCC Friday, the company committed to no journalism or newsroom layoffs for at least two years after the merger is approved and closes.
Rainbow PUSH Coalition founder Rev. Jesse Jackson has told the FCC it should approve the merger of Standard General and Tegna. In a letter to the FCC Monday (Dec. 12), Jackson said that after meeting with Standard General founding partner Soo Kim, who is Asian-American, and upon “careful and scrupulous review of his record on diversity and inclusion,” he and his organization “wholeheartedly support the purchase of Tegna.”
Exclusives
The NewsGuild-CWA and National Alliance of Broadcast Engineers and Technicians-CWA unions are using a retransmission consent impasse between Dish and Apollo Global Management’s Cox Media Group to argue to the FCC against the merger of Standard General and Tegna.
Standard General continues to collect anecdotal backing for its proposed merger with Tegna, which the FCC is still vetting on day 221 of its unofficial 180-day shot clock for reviewing such deals. One of the recent submissions to the FCC docket is from Marcia Green, who identifies herself as the former director of programming for a medium-size ABC affiliate. Green is a fan of Deb McDermott, currently Standard General’s CEO.
The FCC has yet to complete its review of the proposed merger of Standard General and Tegna, but the deal has gotten the OK from “team telecom.” That is the informal title of the interagency committee that reviews deals involving foreign participation in the U.S. communications market for national security and law enforcement concerns, if any.
The Missouri State Conference of the NAACP has called on the FCC to approve the merger of Standard General and Tegna. The group’s president, Adolphus M. Pruitt II, told FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel in a letter that Standard General has “a history of investing in and improving local newsrooms and broadcast stations.”
In a new filing with the FCC, Standard General hit back hard against the arguments made by unions against its proposed acquisition of Tegna, saying the unions have made “baseless allegations” against the deal.
Nancy Pelosi is creating static over the proposed Tegna-Standard General merger that would take a massive group of TV stations private — after she and fellow House Democrats got more than $500,000 in campaign donations from Byron Allen, a comedian-turned-media mogul who wants to block the deal.
Standard General’s long-haul effort to get FCC approval for its proposed purchase of Tegna and its TV stations is getting ugly. Soo Kim, founding partner of Standard General, hit back hard at critics in a press release today, Monday (Oct. 17). Standard General said it was responding to “fact-free” and “repeated ad hominem attacks,” calling out criticisms from representatives of The NewsGuild-CWA, the union that has petitioned to block the deal, and saying they were racially charged and sexist.
The FCC is getting a full-court press from both friends and foes of the merger of broadcast groups Standard General and Tegna, which Democrats could block even with a politically divided 2-2 commission.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone Jr. have expressed “serious concerns” about the proposed merger of Standard General with Tegna to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel. The lawmakers pointed to the accelerating consolidation of local news outlets, and asked the FCC to closely review the pending transaction to ensure that it is in the public interest and promotes the FCC’s values of localism, competition and diversity on the airwaves.
The FCC has asked Tegna and Standard General for yet more documents, with a particular focus on any potential layoffs or impact on retransmission-consent negotiations related to their proposed merger, in the process suggesting the commission won’t decide whether to allow the companies to merge until late October at the earliest.
The Advocating for Women in Tech coalition has weighed in at the FCC in support of the Standard General-Tegna merger. McDermott is CEO of Standard Media. “As a Broadcasting & Cable Hall of Fame Honoree, Mrs. McDermott is widely recognized in her industry and lauded by her staff as one of the nation’s top executives,” the coalition wrote to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel. They also pointed out that the majority of board members of the new company will be women. They said McDermott is “extremely qualified” and “ready to lead the new company.”
Veteran diverse programmer and former Democratic FCC official Frank Washington has asked the FCC to approve the purchase of Tegna by Standard General, with an assist from minority-owned Apollo Global Management in the form of financing and the acquisition of some spin-off stations from the deal.
State legislative Black Caucus leaders have written the FCC to endorse the merger of Standard General and Tegna. “We believe that this deal is in the public’s interest as it will improve local news, increase diversity in media ownership, and help modernize broadcast television for consumers,” the letter said in part.
The FCC’s Media Bureau again has reached out to the NewsGuild-CWA and The National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians (also CWA) to talk about the latter’s problems with the Tegna-Standard General merger. That is according to an ex parte accounting of an Aug. 8 phone call between the guild’s counsel, Andrew Schwartzman and Media Burea Deputy Chief Sarah Whitesell.
Opponents of the $8.6 billion Standard General-Tegna deal met with top FCC officials this week to talk about the former’s issues with the deal, particularly the documents those opponents say the merging parties should be producing. The FCC apparently asked for the meeting.
Standard General, Apollo General and Tegna have pledged to the Federal Communications Commission that they will not jointly negotiate or share information on retransmission consent after their proposed merger-station swap, but that’s not enough for ACA Connects and the other members of the American Television Alliance (ATVA). They want conditions on the deal and an enforcement mechanism.
Common Cause, news and broadcast unions and UCC Media Justice, Which petitioned the FCC to deny the Standard General-Tegna merger, told the FCC Tuesday (Aug. 2) just what it thought of the those merging parties’ defense of the deal, including that the petitioners had no legal right to challenge it. Standard General and Tegna are technically the merging parties, but Apollo Global Management, which controls Cox Media Group, is providing financing and getting some TV stations in an associated swap to keep the merged company within FCC’s local ownership rules. In fact, in its comments, Common Cause identified the deal as the “Proposed Apollo Global Management-Standard General-Tegna Merger.”
Standard General (SGCI) has told the FCC that the two-week comment extension it has granted on the proposed Standard General-Tegna merger could cost the company millions of dollars. SGCI, in opposing a comment extension the FCC ultimately granted, told the FCC that the way the deal is structured the per-share price SGCI has to pay escalates based on the closing date.
Civil rights group Arc of Justice sent a letter to the FCC urging it to approve Standard General’s acquisition of Tegna. The letter testifies to Standard General founder Soo Kim’s commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion.
The FCC has agreed to give key communications unions and advocacy groups a two-week extension on the deadline for comment on the proposed merger of Standard General and Tegna. The NewsGuild-CWA, the National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians-CWA, Common Cause and United Church of Christ, OC, had sought the extension from the current deadline of Aug. 1.
Attorneys for Standard General and Tegna have told the FCC that the petitions to deny their $5 billion-plus merger/station spinoff are both legally irrelevant and factually incorrect and should be rejected so the deal can go through. The FCC has to sign off on the transfer of any station licenses. That is according to a copy of the merging parties’ consolidated oppositions to those petitions and comments on the deal.
He maintains that Apollo Global Management will have no role in running the combined company, following the $5.4 billion merger with Tegna.
NCTA-The Internet & Television Association, said it has no problem with the FCC approving the Standard General-Tegna deal, but only if the commission imposes binding conditions that hold the companies and their deal financing partner — Apollo Global Management/Cox Media Group, to their pledge that they would not strike TV station sharing arrangements or sidecar deals post-merger.
Standard Media CEO Deb McDermott (r) says she has a track record running TV stations. So does Soo Kim, founder and managing partner of Standard General, which agreed to acquire Tegna for $5.4 billion. While the deal is being reviewed by the FCC, objections have been raised by Graham Media, unions and other groups concerned that newsroom jobs will be lost and about the influence of Apollo Global Management, which owns stations through Cox Media Group and is involved in the financing of Standard General’s bid.
“One of our key initiatives is to give our communities a voice,” says Soo Kim (l), founding partner of Standard General and current managing partner and chief investment officer. “We want to partner with community journalism groups to amplify the work they’re doing and the communities they represent.” The merged company will be led by television industry veteran Deb McDermott, forming America’s largest minority-owned, women-led broadcasting company.
Station owner Graham Media has joined the opposition to Standard General’s acquisition of Tegna, filing a petition against the deal with the FCC on Wednesday that focuses on the effect the transaction would have on the Jacksonville, Fla., TV market.
The FCC is asking more questions about private equity company Standard General’s planned purchase of Tegna and take it private. Tegna’s shareholders recently voted to approve the acquisition and the deal is still expected to close on schedule sometime in the second half of this year. But the transaction must still get regulatory approval and other customary closing conditions. Among its new questions, the FCC is asking how Standard General would negotiate retransmission agreements with cable providers for rights to carry TV station signals. It also asked about possible layoffs. And it asked for a detailed explanation with supporting data describing how the transaction would serve the public interest.
Tegna Inc. said that at a special meeting of shareholders held earlier today, its shareholders voted to adopt the merger with an affiliate of Standard General L.P. According to the preliminary results announced at the special meeting, subject to certification by the independent inspector of election, approximately 78% of Tegna’s outstanding common shares voted to adopt the merger agreement. Tegna said the transaction is expected to close in the second half of 2022, subject to regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions. Upon closing, Tegna will become a private company, and its shares will no longer be traded on the New York Stock Exchange.
Critics of the $8 billion-plus purchase of Tegna’s TV station group by investment fund Standard General have told the FCC it needs to collect more data on the proposed merger before it rules on whether it is in the public interest. Common Cause, joined by the NewsGuild-CWA union and Public Knowledge, have filed a formal motion for both additional documents that the FCC and the public can peruse and an extension of time to weigh in. Currently, the FCC has set a May 23 deadline for those wishing to formally oppose the deal.
The FCC says that if anyone wants to oppose the $8 billion-plus purchase of Tegna’s TV station group by investment fund Standard General, they need to speak now, or at least by May 23.
That is the deadline for petitions to deny the deal, according to the pleading cycle for public comment on the deal released by the FCC Thursday (April 21). The FCC has opened a docket on the deal (Docket No. 22162) where oppositions and responses will be filed.
