Team Telecom Reviewing Hemisphere Media Foreign-Ownership Request

The Committee for the Assessment of Foreign Participation in the U.S. Telecommunications Services Sector, known as Team Telecom, is reviewing a foreign ownership request involving a number of TV and radio stations in Puerto Rico, said a DOJ letter in docket 23-2. The letter concerns a petition for declaratory ruling from Searchlight II HMT (see 2301040065) seeking permission for its parent company, Hemisphere Media Group, to be up to 100% foreign owned. That request is connected with pending broadcast station transactions at the FCC involving Searchlight subsidiary Televicentro of Puerto Rico and Univision. The deal would lead to the stations being controlled by “certain Searchlight investment fund entities organized in the Cayman Islands that are ultimately controlled by foreign individuals.” The FCC will be notified when responses to Team Telecom’s initial request for information are complete and the 120-day initial review period can begin, the letter said.