New Report: Sinclair Guts Newsrooms and Rips Off Consumers in Rural America
Report Details Sinclair’s History of Holding Rural Consumers Hostage
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Allied Progress released a special report detailing Sinclair’s history of neglect and contempt for its rural customers. The report, titled “Rural Rundown: How Sinclair Guts Newsrooms and Rips Off Consumers in Rural America,” details instances where Sinclair has manipulated media ownership rules, gutted local newsrooms, forced programming blackouts, and made cable customers victims of their corporate wars.
Now Sinclair is attempting to merge with Tribune Media. If approved it would create the largest TV news monopoly in history – reaching 72% of U.S. Households – which means less competition and higher costs for consumers, among other issues.
“Sinclair has a well document track record of harming rural consumers, from blacking out local college sports to consolidating local TV stations and gutting local newsrooms; they put their bottom line ahead of what’s best for consumers. If this merger goes through, it will lead to fewer options and higher costs for rural communities. That’s just one of the many reasons this merger must be rejected,” said Karl Frisch, executive director of Allied Progress.
The FCC has officially stopped the clock on its 180-day review of the merger between Sinclair Broadcast Group and Tribune Media until Thursday, November 2, though Chairman Ajit Pai’s effort to take down the regulatory barriers in Sinclair’s way continues unabated. Last week, the FCC voted to “eliminate a rule that required broadcast station groups to maintain a physical presence in the community of their primary local coverage area.”
Report Highlights:
- Sinclair’s CEO told shareholders in 2017 that he was “quite excited” about relaxed local media ownership rules and that he saw there are “significant savings to be had” by consolidating local news.
- The Competitive Carriers Association said the Sinclair-Tribune merger should be denied and that the merger would allow Sinclair to impede repacking, on which rural Americans rely.
- The Rural Broadband Association stated that as a result of the Sinclair-Tribune merger, rural consumers are more likely to face higher prices and blackouts.
- When Sinclair blacked out an Ohio cable affiliate near the holiday season in December 2013, the president of the American Cable Association called it “Grinch-like” and slammed Sinclair’s “indifference” to customers in its goal to extract higher fees from cable operators and the customers themselves.
- Sinclair was responsible for the “largest TV blackout ever in the U.S.” – affecting 129 local stations across the country – when it failed to reach an agreement with Dish Network.
- In January 2017, Sinclair took its signal off Frontier Communications systems in rural areas in five states. It is reported that “Frontier’s relatively small size may [have] put it at a disadvantage when negotiating with Sinclair, which is the country’s largest operator of local TV stations.”
- After acquiring Ohio’s WNWO in 2013, Sinclair announced in 2017 that it would cut newsroom staff by 80 percent and outsource the station’s news operations to South Bend, Indiana.
To speak to Karl Frisch about the Sinclair-Tribune merger, please contact Annette McDermott at 202-697-4804 or annette@alliedprogress.org.
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