Sinclair Agrees to $48M Penalty, in Record Broadcaster Consent Decree With FCC

Sinclair agreed to a $48 million civil penalty as part of settling an FCC probe of the company's since-killed takeover of Tribune Media, the agency announced Wednesday. It's the highest civil penalty involving a broadcaster, the FCC said: The prior high was $24 million by Univision in 2007, as that company was being taken private. Now, Sinclair has licenses up for renewal.

The FCC said the new decree ends investigations of Sinclair's disclosure of information about buying Tribune TV stations and whether the buyer negotiated retransmission consent agreements in good faith and identified the sponsor of content it produced and supplied to Sinclair and other TV stations. A company representative declined to comment right away on the record.

“Sinclair’s conduct during its attempt to merge with Tribune was completely unacceptable,” said FCC Chairman Ajit Pai. “Today’s penalty, along with the failure of the Sinclair/Tribune transaction, should serve as a cautionary tale to other licensees seeking Commission approval of a transaction in the future. On the other hand, I disagree with those who, for transparently political reasons, demand that we revoke Sinclair’s licenses. While they don’t like what they perceive to be the broadcaster’s viewpoints, the First Amendment still applies around here.”

Offices of other commissioners didn't comment immediately.