FCC May Have Little Room to Probe Tribune Connecticut Merger
Tribune’s plan for a merger involving two Connecticut TV stations and a daily newspaper that it owns (CD March 31 p8) drew fire from the state’s attorney general as possibly violating FCC rules. But the commission seems to have little basis for investigating because the stations, WTIC-TV Hartford and WTTX Waterbury, have no license renewals pending, FCC and industry officials said.
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Merging the news operations of the stations with the Hartford Courant would appear “on its face” to violate the FCC’s ban on owning a daily paper and a TV station in a market, Attorney General Richard Blumenthal wrote Tribune Chairman Sam Zell. He noted that the company has a commission waiver allowing it to own the stations and paper. But Blumenthal is “concerned that allowing these entities to fully merge into one news and information operation goes well beyond what the FCC intended when it gave Tribune a two-year limited waiver,” he wrote Wednesday.
Without a pending license renewal or a showing of harm from reduced news output by the station, the FCC has little room to investigate, commission and industry officials said. Harm couldn’t be shown before the merger, an FCC official said.
“As a practical matter, the renewal context is where it would come up,” said Andrew Schwartzman, the Media Access Project’s president. “A good bit of what Tribune is doing does not require common ownership. They could have a joint venture and so forth without violating the commission’s rules.” But the United Church of Christ and others have asked the commission not to allow cross-ownership of Tribune’s Connecticut properties, said Angela Campbell, director of Georgetown University’s Institute for Public Representation. It filed the request.
The FCC could latch on to the group’s request to look at Blumenthal’s complaints, a commission official said. But no FCC investigation seems to have begun, FCC officials said. A commission spokesman declined to comment. Blumenthal’s letter asked Zell several questions about what the results of Tribune’s Connecticut consolidation will be and acknowledged that the strategy may have merit. “If it offers a promising, important new model, it must also be consistent with the law,” Blumenthal wrote. “It may be reason to change the law, by statue or regulatory action.”
Tribune’s plans for the stations and paper are “in full compliance with the law, including the waivers granted by the FCC,” a company spokesman said. “These three business units have taken advantage of one another’s newsgathering resources for several years.” Papers and broadcasters must “become more efficient to survive” in this economy, he added. “Measures such as this are essential to preserve the quality journalism that the Courant and our television stations are known for.”