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http://www.motherjones.com/media/2017/11/fcc-sinclair-media-ownership-tribune-merger/

On Thursday, the Republican-led Federal Communications Commission voted on a series of actions that would eliminate regulations for local media ownership while approving a new TV broadcast standard developed by Sinclair. Both decisions will likely result in a major windfall for the Maryland-based company, paving the way for Sinclairs proposed $3.9 billion merger with Tribune Media and for the widespread adoption of its Next Gen TV service.

The FCCs two Democratic commissioners voted against the deregulatory decisions. We have engaged in a series of media policy changes at this agency that are striking in the one thing that they have in common, FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, a Democrat, told reporters on Thursday. They are all custom-built for a company called Sinclair Broadcasting,

The five-member FCC, led by Republican Chairman Ajit Pai, voted on Thursday to loosen the rules on owning multiple TV and radio stations in the same market. The FCCs announcement helps pave the way for Sinclairs mega-merger with Tribune Media, a deal that would give the company well over 200 TV stations, including in New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago, the countrys three biggest media markets. The FCC also voted to remove the 40-year-old ban on a company owning a newspaper and a TV or radio station in the same media market as part of the FCCs deregulatory spree on Thursday.

Before Thursdays vote, Sinclair faced the prospect of offloading some of its stations if the Tribune deal went through in order to stay under a national ownership cap for broadcast companiesanother rule the Trump FCC could potentially jettison. But Andrew Jay Schwartzman of the Communications and Technology Law Clinic at the Georgetowns Institute for Public Representation says the FCCs latest round of deregulation may allow Sinclair to retain more of its stations should the Tribune deal get approved. It makes it possible for the deal to go through, and the changes yesterday reduce or completely eliminate the number of stations theyll have to divest, Schwartzman says. In short, thanks to the FCC, Sinclair would emerge from the Tribune merger even larger and more lucrative than previously expected.

Thursdays actions were the latest example of the FCCs three-member Republican majority removing barriers to Sinclairs expansion. Sinclairs $3.9 billion proposed merger with Tribune, for instance, would not have been possible if Pai and his fellow Republicans had not reinstated the so-called ultra high frequency discount, a Reagan-era regulatory loophole that lets broadcasters count only half of their audience reach for ultra high frequency channelsthat is, channels 14 and higher. The FCC under President Obama had eliminated this loophole after TV went digital in 2009, but Pai and his fellow Republicans brought it back earlier this year, opening the door for the Sinclair-Tribune deal.

Pai has repeatedly said his actions were not intended to benefit Sinclair or any other specific company. He insisted that his decisions since Trump made him FCC chairman in January were part of a larger campaign to update the nations media laws. My actions have been motivated by my belief that a strong over-the-air broadcast service advances the public interest, he wrote in a September 15 letter to Rep. Frank Pallone (D-NJ), the ranking member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. They have not been fueled by a desire to help any particular company.