Anti-Media Consolidation Groups Call for Extension on Standard/Tegna Comments

Standard General, Tegna and Apollo Global Management haven’t provided enough information to the FCC on Standard General’s $8.6 billion proposed buy of Tegna and the agency should grant a 30-day extension on the due date for petitions to deny the deal and request more info from the companies, said Public Knowledge, Common Cause and the Communications Workers of America's NewsGuild sector in a joint filing posted in docket 22-162 Friday. Currently, petitions to deny the deal are due May 23. The “shell game” of complex station swaps in the deal have been “contrived by a New York finance firm” solely to trigger automatic retransmission fee increases through after-acquired clauses, said the filing. Standard, Tegna and Apollo didn’t immediately comment on the filing. “These transactions appear to be nothing more than financial engineering and sophisticated price-gouging,” said the groups. “They create the potential to raise prices to consumers during an inflationary period and slash journalism jobs right when we need them most.” The filing also raises questions about the degree of connection between Apollo and Standard, since Apollo owns a stake in the broadcaster. Though the deal would keep Apollo’s interest in the new entity non-controlling, it contains “loopholes” that could allow Apollo access to Standard’s retrans contract information and allow Apollo to influence Standard’s actions, the groups said. The filings call for the deal participants to provide retransmission consent agreements, submissions to DOJ and investor presentations, among other information.