Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) wrote FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel this week to provide moral support for the regulator’s decision to designate the Standard General-Tegna station group merger for hearing before an administrative law judge.

Warren has been a critic of the deal as anticompetitive consolidation and a fan of the hearing designation.

“I urge the [Federal Communications Commission] to continue its thorough and careful review, regardless of recent calls by supporters of the deal to rush through the agency consideration," Warren wrote. Warren has said that she fears the deal will mean layoffs, reduced competition for ads and increased retransmission-consent fees.

The companies have made numerous promises that they say address those concerns, but Warren is skeptical of behavioral remedies, which she says are hard to monitor and easy to evade. “I commend the FCC for taking these concerns seriously by reviewing the merger thoroughly, consistent with its statutory authority,” she told Rosenworcel.

Arguably the “rush through” characterization is a bit of a stretch since the FCC is currently on day 309 of its informal 180-day timeline for reviews. That includes multiple requests for documents from the parties.

Standard General agreed to acquire Tegna in February of 2022 in an $8.6 billion deal that includes the assumption of $3.2 billion in debt. Apollo Global Management (AGM) is providing some of the funding for the deal. AGM controls Cox Media Group, which will own some of the Tegna stations if the deal is approved.

A group of Democratic Congress members has sent a letter urging the Justice Department to conduct a post-merger review of the WarnerMedia-Discovery deal because of actions by Warner Bros. Discovery.

Since Discovery acquired WarnerMedia from AT&T, the new company has done things that have heightened barriers to entry for workers in the media and entertainment industry, hurt competition for industry workers and reduced choice for media consumers, the legislators assert.

The letter does not call for the Justice Department to break up Warner Bros. Discovery but it could make further consolidation more difficult.

“We also hope that the competitive consequences resulting from the WarnerMedia-Discovery merger inform updates to the merger guidelines to ensure that the guidelines reflect the needs of workers, consumers and content creators in the media and entertainment industry,” the letter said.

The letter was signed by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.); Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.), ranking member of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Administrative State, Regulatory Reform and Antitrust; Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus; and Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas).

 Warner Bros. Discovery declined to comment, but it is not the only company in the entertainment space moving to cut costs and reduce the amount of content available to consumers.

The Walt Disney Co. is in the process of laying off 7,000 employees and Netflix said it was cutting back on movie production...

In the letter, the legislators say that Warner Bros. Discovery’s cost-cutting efforts have hurt employees and consumers of video content. It asserts that Warner Bros. Discovery has been able to make these moves because the merger created less competition in the industry.

The merger “enabled the combined WBD to take aggressive measures, harming workers and creatives in the media and entertainment industry while eliminating the disciplining forces of competition that provide workers with the freedom to change jobs or negotiate for better pay and working conditions … WBD’s aggressive measures post-merger indicate that current competition in the media and entertainment industry is inadequate. The company has the incentive and ability to eliminate broad swaths of its workforce, leaving workers with fewer choices for employment and advancement,” the letter said.

The letter notes layoffs conducted at WBD. It also notes titles that were in production and canceled after the merger was approved and consummated, including Batgirl, Gordita Chronicles, Demimonde and The Time Traveler’s Wife.

It also notes that WBD shut down the new CNN Plus streaming service, a move that affected about 350 employees. It notes that the company will also be combining HBO Max and Discovery Plus into one streaming platform. 

“This leaves questions unanswered about whether a lower-priced platform will have reduced quality from the current product — while consumers are paying the same price and lack the transparency necessary to fully evaluate the plans and their relative prices,“ the letter says. ”With fewer alternatives available to consumers, there is less competitive pressure on WBD to innovate or provide a variety of quality content.

"The antitrust laws seek to promote consumer choice, product variety, and industry innovation,“ the lawmakers wrote. “Accordingly, if a consummated merger results in dramatically less available content and discourages innovation, the merger should be reassessed.

“WBD’s new ownership is hollowing out an iconic American studio,” the letter said. “We respectfully request that the Department take another look at the transaction, considering WBD’s post-transaction conduct.”

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) on Wednesday sent a letter to the Federal Communications Commission urging it to block Standard General’s proposed $8.6 billion acquisition of Tegna.

In her letter, Warren said “the parties themselves have acknowledged that this deal is likely to produce anticompetitive effects,” including higher prices, worker layoffs and collusion.

Warren added that the behavioral remedies Standard General has offered to address those concerns are “historically ineffective and should provide no comfort that these Wall Street firms will not engage in anticompetitive practices after the deal is completed.”

The acquisition has faced opposition from unions, cable operators and rival broadcasters.

Standard General has pointed out that it is a minority-owned company with women in important management positions. It has also pledged not to lay off newsroom staffers at the stations it buys and has said it will not leverage inherited retransmission-consent deals to jack up rates in additional markets where it will own stations.

Earlier this week, Standard General and Tegna launched a website promoting the merger.

Review of the merger by the FCC has gone on past its usual timeline. Most recently, the agency has given commenters a deadline of  January 20, The FCC will need to vet those comments, which means it is unlikely a decision will be made until early February. ■

In responses to letters from Capitol Hill Dems--and one high-profile independent--raising concerns about unauthorized charges on cable and broadband bills, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler put in a plug for his set-top box proposal.

The FCC has released Wheeler's response to independent and Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders and a trio of Senate Democrats on the issue in which he talks about Open Internet enhanced transparency rules and said the FCC does not have a way of determining how many folks have been charged unauthorized fees.

But he also notes his proposal to unbundle the programming streams of cable set-top boxes. That is because the proposal includes associated "robust billing transparency" requirements that would extend to cable modems.

The FCC is proposing to require MVPDs to separate out the charge for leasing equipment currently bundled into the price of service.

The FCC cited that proposal in not putting a modem fee-line item condition on the Charter/TWC deal and similar requests in other proceedings, saying it was more appropriately dealt with in the broader set-top proposal.

He said that will not solve all the legislators' concerns about cable and broadband bill transparency, but he says will give consumers a tool to ferret out error or unauthorized charges.

Wheeler could use some more selling points for his set-top (or navigation device) proposal given the pushback he has gotten from a number of Hill Democrats, as well as Republicans and ISPs and some minority groups and others.

The senators seeking the info included Al Franken of Minnesota, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Jeff Merkley of Oregon.