Nexstar Broadcasting Group today filed a federal civil antitrust lawsuit in the Northern District of Indiana against Granite Broadcasting, alleging that Granite is monopolizing local TV sales in Fort Wayne, Ind..
According to Nexstar, Granite will control the local ad sales in the market with stations affiliated with Fox, NBC, ABC, CW and MNT.
The suit is an apparent reaction to Granite’s WISE picking up the Fox affiliation in Fort Wayne after Nexstar was unable to come to terms with Fox on renewing the affiliation for its WFFT. WISE is named in the suit.
WISE is an NBC affiliate that now carries MNT on a subchannel. Starting Aug. 1, it plans to split the time on the subchannel between MNT and Fox.
Under an arrangement with Malara Broadcasting, WISE also operates ABC affiliate WPTA, which carries the CW on a subchannel.
Last week, Nexstar announced plans to operate WFFT as an independent.
LIN Media owns the market’s CBS affiliate, WANE.
Nexstar’s lawsuit asserts that Granite’s actions violate Section 1 and 2 of the Sherman Act, Section 7 of the Clayton Act, and Indiana antitrust law.
Nexstar is seeking a judgment that would force Granite to give up at least one of the three Big Four network affiliation it now represents in the market.
It is also seeking treble damages for injuries that it has sustained and will sustain as a result of Granite’s anticompetitive acts.
“[G]ranite’s actions to monopolize advertising sales in Fort Wayne will allow it to raise advertising rates to local businesses that are dependent on a fair and competitive television network marketplace,” Nexstar said in a statement.
“The increased advertising rates will likely drive increases in the prices of goods and services for consumers as well.”
Nexstar is being represented in its lawsuit by Constantine Cannon LLP and Krieg Devault LLP.
Granite COO Duane Lammers declined to comment on the suit. Lammers, incidentally, is a former COO of Nexstar.
Go, Nexstar! Fort Wayne is a great example of the terrible impact duopolies can have. It used to be a decent market for its size, but ever since the Malara/Granite deal, it’s awful. The branding is confusing, the signal quality and production values of those stations is bad, etc. I don’t think much of Nexstar, but do admire it for challenging this latest event with WISE and FOX.
Nexstar=Mission=Pot Calling Kettle Black?
Exactly! Perry is the biggest user of the so-called sidecars for JSA/SSA arrangements. He’s just pissed about losing FOX and is hoping to pick off one of the other affiliations.
Ditto!
WISE’s the bad guy? Duh…, didn’t Nexstar fail to satisfy Fox and get the heave-ho from Fox? Can’t see that this is Granite’s problem!
Ditto!
Would Nexstar like a little cheese with their whine? They’re obviously afraid that without even a piddly little MNT affiliation, they won’t be able to make money with syndicated fare. Life’s tough! Maybe they should have done a little more to settle with Fox.
Exactly!
Wasn’t Duane Lammers a big shot at nexstar? Seems like brotherly love gone wrong and yes… Perry is calling the kettle black – nexstar and mission “own” several markets.