Altice Wants Better Explanation on Standard/Tegna

The FCC should consider requiring Standard General and Tegna to “better explain the structure” of their proposed deal and its use of “after-acquired” and “divested” station clauses, said Altice in a call with an aide to Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel last week, according to an ex parte filing in docket 22-162. Altice is “concerned that the applicants may be engineering this transaction to raise retransmission consent prices through a complicated deployment” of such clauses, the filing said. The transaction's effect on retransmission consent negotiations has been a focus of deal opponents (see 2208090026).