Justice Department Requires Six Broadcast Television Companies to Terminate - Refrain From Unlawful
Source: DOJ News
Justice Department Requires Six Broadcast Television Companies to Terminate and Refrain From Unlawful Sharing of Competitively Sensitive Information
Proposed Settlement Preserves Competition in Broadcast Television Advertising Markets Across the United States and Requires Cooperation in Ongoing Antitrust Division Investigation
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The Department of Justice announced today that it has reached a settlement with six broadcast television companies Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc.; Raycom Media Inc.; Tribune Media Company; Meredith Corporation; Griffin Communications; and Dreamcatcher Broadcasting LLC to resolve a Department lawsuit alleging that the companies engaged in unlawful agreements to share non-public competitively sensitive information with their broadcast television competitors.
The Justice Departments Antitrust Division filed a civil antitrust lawsuit today in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to challenge the unlawful exchange of competitively sensitive information among these six broadcast television companies, their sales representatives, and other broadcast television groups. At the same time, the Department filed proposed settlements that, if approved by the court, would resolve the lawsuits alleged competitive harm alleged in the complaint.
The unlawful exchange of competitively sensitive information allowed these television broadcast companies to disrupt the normal competitive process of spot advertising in markets across the United States, said Assistant Attorney General Makan Delrahim of the Justice Departments Antitrust Division. Advertisers rely on competition among owners of broadcast television stations to obtain reasonable advertising rates, but this unlawful sharing of information lessened that competition and thereby harmed the local businesses and the consumers they serve.
According to the complaint, the six broadcast television companies agreed in many metropolitan areas across the United States to exchange revenue pacing information, and certain defendants also engaged in the exchange of other forms of non-public sales information in certain metropolitan areas. Pacing compares a broadcast stations revenues booked for a certain time period to the revenues booked in the same point in the previous year. Pacing indicates how each station is performing versus the rest of the market and provides insight into each stations remaining spot advertising for the period.
Read more: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-requires-six-broadcast-television-companies-terminate-and-refrain-unlawful
pnwmom
(108,977 posts)elleng
(130,883 posts)'exchange revenue pacing information, and certain defendants also engaged in the exchange of other forms of non-public sales information in certain metropolitan areas'
laserhaas
(7,805 posts)Just sayin....
BumRushDaShow
(128,905 posts)I believe iHeart (as well as Cumulus, Entercom, etc) is radio-only.
laserhaas
(7,805 posts)Sooner or later, somebody has to nail Mitt.
BumRushDaShow
(128,905 posts)but did remember that Tribune and Sinclair were two television conglomerates that I was aware of.
rurallib
(62,411 posts)I thought they were radio/ outdoor advertising.
laserhaas
(7,805 posts)I'm not sure an entity can own radio and TV at the same time.
We know Bain Capital tried to acquire WSJ
mwooldri
(10,303 posts)RussBLib
(9,006 posts)And what would we expect from Trump-lovers? ( I am assuming, probably incorrectly, that the others are like Sinclair, a shameless right-wing cesspool)
erronis
(15,241 posts)They are the purveyors of tons of "self-help", "family", "women's" magazines. Why would they not want to have transparency and fairness, especially with their political/monopolistic tendencies?
Boycotts work wonders, especially for "fluff" stuff.