Sinclair Submits Remade Tribune Deal to FCC

Sinclair has submitted its new proposal to purchase Tribune stations, taking into account the deregulatory media ownership changes the Federal Communications Commission made in December 2018 to allow for more local station ownership, including allowing smaller-market duopolies and the ownership of more than one top station in a market in some circumstances.  The plan includes divestitures of WGN-TV Chicago (IL) and WPIX-TV New York, and KSWB-TV San Diego (CA) to come under the FCC's 39 percent ownership cap. Sinclair does not own stations in either New York or Chicago. Apparently, Sinclair has told the Department of Justice it would sell certain stations and is still discussing other spin-offs, but in order to achieve a timely closing it is submitting the plan to the FCC so it can start making its case-by-case evaluation of the markets where Sinclair wants to own two of the top four.