Feds OK With Sinclair's Tennis Channel Buy

By John Eggerton
published

The government has no problem with Sinclair's purchase of the Tennis Channel, according to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), an OK that paves the way for the acquisition's closing.

Sinclair last month struck a deal to buy the channel for $350 million, expanding the station group's cable footprint beyond the NewsChannel 8 news net it picked up in the Allbritton purchase.

The FTC Thursday (Feb. 25) included the deal on its list of transactions granted early termination of their Hart-Scott-Rodino antitrust review.

Any deal valued north of approximately $75 million must get such a review. Early termination means neither the Justice Department nor the FTC, which releases the list, has found any reason to block or condition the deal.

The merger does not involve the transfer of FCC licenses, so the commission does not have to weigh in on the public interest benefits.

John Eggerton
John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.