In addition to agreeing to pay $9,495,000, Sinclair has agreed to implement a compliance plan aimed at ensuring no similar violations in the future. Today’s action is the first of its kind to enforce the commission’s long-standing retransmission consent rules.
Sinclair Settles FCC Retrans Matters For $9.5M
The FCC announced today that Sinclair Broadcast Group will pay $9,495,000 to resolve a number of Media Bureau investigations, including the bureau’s investigation of allegations that Sinclair violated its obligation to negotiate for retransmission consent in good faith.
The commission’s retransmission consent rules, as mandated by Congress, forbid a broadcaster to negotiate jointly for one of its stations and for another station in the same market that it does not control. The FCC said that in its investigation, the Media Bureau found that, over the course of seven months, Sinclair negotiated retransmission consent on behalf of dozens stations that it did not control at the same time that it was negotiating for its own stations in the same markets.
“As Chairman Wheeler made clear just this month, the commission will not hesitate to take enforcement action where broadcasters or pay TV providers violate their good faith obligations,” said Media Bureau Chief Bill Lake. “Today’s action demonstrates our strong commitment to vigilantly enforce our retransmission consent rules when necessary.”
In addition to agreeing to pay $9,495,000, Sinclair has agreed to implement a compliance plan aimed at ensuring no similar violations in the future. Today’s action is the first of its kind to enforce the commission’s long-standing retransmission consent rules.
The settlement also resolves a number of other issues that had been pending for Sinclair-owned stations, and the bureau has agreed to grant all pending Sinclair renewal applications (for 90 stations) as part of the settlement terms.
In a statement, Sinclair said: “The FCC did not find Sinclair to be at fault in connection with any of the matters addressed in the Consent Decree, nor did Sinclair admit any liability with respect thereto. This Consent Decree, and the dismissals of other pending matters, brings closure to all of these issues and allows Sinclair to focus on the future.”
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“2017 will begin a new era for broadcasting, with the post-auction repack and the initial rollout of Next Generation TV (or ATSC 3.0), and clearing this backlog sets the stage for that,” said Rebecca Hanson, SVP of strategy and policy for Sinclair. “We look forward to starting this next chapter with a clean slate in the Media Bureau and to help lead the way through the challenges and opportunities to come.”
The Consent Decree with Sinclair Broadcasting Group is available here.
Comments (3)
Don Thompson says:
July 29, 2016 at 4:23 pm
I’m withholding comment at this time because I’m probably going to need all weekend to examine each retransmission consent violation by Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc. Please Follow Me On Twitter: @TedatACA
Wagner Pereira says:
July 31, 2016 at 9:32 pm
Or did they really just pay to clear the deck, avoid millions in legal fees and push through the renewal of 90 stations that had been stalled? Just on that basis alone, that $105.5k each to push the 90 renewals through. Pretty cost effective actually.
Joe Jaime says:
July 30, 2016 at 5:46 pm
OUCH!!