Approving Sinclair's buy of Tribune could undermine DOJ’s position on AT&T/Time Warner (see 1801310074) and lead to “huge liberal broadcasters that dwarf the size and power of the merged Sinclair-Tribune company,” wrote former House Republican Majority Leader Tom DeLay for Politico Wednesday. Broadcast ownership limits allowed Republicans to make large gains in the 1980s and '90s because they ensured a broad spectrum of licensees owned most of the country’s TV stations, “bypassing the liberal bias of New York City network executives at NBC, CBS and ABC,” DeLay said. Though Sinclair is conservative-leaning, approving the deal would set a precedent that would allow the much larger networks to grow, DeLay said. “At that point, nothing can stop liberal Northeast corporate executives from telling homes in the heartland what to think.” Allowing Sinclair/Tribune would weaken the case against AT&T/TW, DeLay said. “Trump’s DOJ would be gifting AT&T’s lawyers with a powerful argument that DOJ’s selective enforcement is not only arbitrary but also illogical.” It would give “an easy talking point to liberal Democratic senators” who argue Justice’s opposition to that deal is “political payback for CNN’s drumbeat of anti-Trump news,” Delay said. Sinclair didn't comment.

More broadcasters filed motions to intervene on the FCC’s side in public interest groups’ challenge of the broadcast ownership order on reconsideration. Nexstar (in Pacer) cited the order’s changes to rules governing joint sales agreements as giving it the right to intervene in the case, while News Corp (in Pacer), Bonneville International (in Pacer) and 21st Century Fox (in Pacer) pointed to their common ownership of TV stations and newspapers and the order’s elimination of the newspaper cross-ownership rule. Radio broadcaster Connoisseur Media (in Pacer) said the order’s changes to rules governing embedded markets were its reason for intervening. NAB, Sinclair and the News Media Alliance also filed motions to intervene (see 1801290036). An FCC response in the case is due Friday.

Comments on FCC rules for June 21 auction of mutually exclusive FM translator permits from 2003 (see 1801170031) are due Feb. 6, replies Feb. 13, said Wednesday's Federal Register.

The FCC must respond by 3 p.m. Friday to an emergency stay request filed by public interest groups against an order on reconsideration relaxing broadcast ownership rules (see 1801260046), the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said in an order (in Pacer) released late last week. Sinclair (in Pacer) and News Media Alliance (in Pacer) filed motions to intervene in the case on the side of the FCC, joining NAB.

The value of E.W. Scripps’ radio business, which it plans to sell as part of restructuring, is “understated,” Noble Capital Markets analyst Michael Kupinski emailed investors Friday. “Street estimates” for the radio business' value appear “too low and we estimate the value in the range of $55 million to $77 million,” Kupinski said. The company announced plans to sell its 34 radio stations in a release on the restructuring Thursday. Savings from the restructuring are likely to begin in Q4, Kupinski said. The broadcaster has said the savings will be $30 million in the next 12 to 18 months.

Sinclair met with Chief Michelle Carey and Media Bureau staff Monday on FCC criteria for allowing common ownership of two top-four stations in the same market, said a Wednesday ex parte filing in docket 17-179. “Participants discussed generally the criteria set out in the Reconsideration Order and the types of information that might be presented in making such a showing.” Sinclair may be the first broadcaster to try the agency’s new case-by-case analysis of such combinations (see 1801120049).

Comments on possible changes to the broadcaster national ownership cap will be due Feb. 26, replies March 27, the Federal Register says. The FCC NPRM seeking comment on agency authority to alter or eliminate the cap (see 1712140054) is to be published Friday.

The FCC Media Bureau needs more information to rule on Spanish Broadcasting System’s request for remedial permission to exceed the 25 percent foreign ownership benchmark, said a letter. SBS learned its foreign ownership percentage may have changed after some of the company’s shareholders served it with a lawsuit, the letter said. SBS then filed a petition for a declaratory ruling allowing it to temporarily exceed the foreign ownership benchmark. The company didn’t know the identities of the shareholders involved until they filed the complaint, the letter said. SBS hasn’t established that the shareholders are foreign shareholders, and the investors agreed to cooperate with determining the company’s level of foreign ownership, the bureau said. SBS should amend the petition with that information before the agency can act on it, staff said. If the shareholders or broadcaster doesn’t cooperate, the agency reserves the right to classify all the shareholders in question as aliens for the purpose of foreign ownership review.

Public interest groups asked the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to stay the FCC’s rollback of broadcast ownership rules, block any deals that would be inconsistent with current broadcast ownership rules, and force the agency to comply with the Prometheus III decision. The request came in a petition for writ of mandamus filed by Prometheus Radio Project and Media Mobilizing Project Thursday. The same groups appealed the broadcast ownership reconsideration order last week (see 1801180045). They want the court to rule on the request by Feb. 7, the effective date of the recon order that would eliminate rules against cross-ownership and restricting duopolies. “If not stayed, the FCC’s most recent order will result in so much consolidation in local media markets and such dramatic impact on ownership diversity, so as to deny Citizen Petitioners adequate relief,” the filing says. The stay request castigates the FCC for failing to comply with all three 3rd Circuit Prometheus decisions, which required the FCC to establish a new definition of an eligible entity and to collect data on how ownership rules affect ownership diversity. The writ asks the court to stay implementation of the ownership recon order until “60 days after the adoption of a final, reviewable order adopting or rejecting an eligible entity definition that will advance ownership by minorities and women,” or until after the court has ruled on the groups’ appeals of the recon order and the 2014 quadrennial ownership review. The groups also asked the court to appoint a special master to supervise FCC compliance with the court’s previous Prometheus remands and oversee implementation of data collection plans. The FCC didn’t comment.

The Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council’s request for an en banc rehearing of its case for multilingual emergency alert system rules should be rejected because the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit’s ruling (see 1712080070) doesn’t conflict with other court decisions or raise novel issues, the FCC said in a respondent brief. The decision “applied settled principles of law” and the MMTC petition for rehearing should be denied, the agency said. The original rule committed to gathering information on multilingual alerts, and members of the public who don't understand English have other ways to get emergency information, the agency argued. MMTC plans for multilingual EAS alerts would have required a massive restructuring of the system, and rejecting such a plan was reasonable, the regulator said. “The panel determined that the agency was reasonable in seeking to obtain a complete record before concluding its examination of what is a complex and difficult issue.”