Standard/Tegna Deal Participants Want Dish Access Blocked
The FCC should block a request from Dish to be given access to confidential documents connected with the Standard/Tegna deal and strike from the record a Dish letter on retransmission negotiation (see 2212290048), said filings from Standard, Tegna and Cox…
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Media posted Tuesday in docket 22-162. “There is no question that DISH is seeking to use an unrelated FCC process to gain commercial advantage,” said CMG in a letter rejecting implications from Dish that CMG violated retrans negotiation rules. DISH is involved in active retransmission negotiations and blackouts with CMG and Standard General, the broadcasters said. The CMG language cited by Dish concerned stations that CMG would own under the terms of the merger agreement, CMG said. The heavily redacted document filed by Dish “implicitly invites” the FCC to “conflate the concept” of after-acquired station clauses with negotiating retransmission consent terms for other broadcaster’s stations, CMG said. The agency should strike Dish’s letter from the record and require any party with access to the document to destroy their copies of it, said CMG. The FCC also shouldn't grant Dish access to the confidential filings from Cox, Standard and Tegna connected with the deal, said a joint filing from those companies. “The risk of allowing DISH to review this information for what appear to be transparently competitive reasons that are, in all events, unrelated to the underlying proceeding, threatens the integrity of the Commission’s processes,” said the filing. The filing also questioned whether Dish could maintain the required separation between the attorneys reviewing the sensitive retrans documents filed in the merger proceeding and those negotiating retrans contracts with the broadcasters. That concern also was raised about the arrangement among Standard, Tegna and CMG parent Apollo Global Management (see 2212290048). Allowing Dish access to the filings while in retrans negotiations “is highly improper and fails to balance the risk of competitive harm,” said the joint filing. Dish didn't comment.