Sinclair Broadcasting has told the FCC it must either put conditions on the Comcast/Time Warner Cable merger--including retrans conditions — deregulate broadcasters, or deny the deal.
That came in comments to the FCC Monday.
Sinclair argues that the deal would create a company with "unprecedented" horizontal and vertical scale, scale it could use to raise prices, reduce competition, and diminish localism, diversity and consumer choice.
"Simply stated, post-transaction the combined company could have sufficient size and scale to exercise significant leverage over competitors in the programming industry, including local broadcast television, and potentially to drive them out of business or to reduce their ability to compete for quality programming," Sinclair says.
Read the full story at Broadcasting & Cable.
