News

WASHINGTON — Sinclair Broadcast Group has announced a $985-million deal to purchase nine local TV stations from Allbritton Communications, including both the ABC affiliate and a 24-hour cable news channel in Washington, D.C.

WASHINGTON — On Wednesday evening, Free Press and other groups filed a petition at the Federal Communications Commission to deny Gannett’s acquisition of TV station owner Belo.

WASHINGTON – On Tuesday, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) announced that he would join Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) as a co-sponsor of the Television Consumer Freedom Act. McCain introduced the bill in May to bring consumers an “a la carte” option when purchasing cable packages.

WASHINGTON — On Monday, Free Press filed comments with the Federal Communications Commission about a flawed Minority Media Telecommunications Council study purporting to examine the impact of cross-ownership on women- and minority-owned broadcast stations.

WASHINGTON — On Tuesday, Free Press joined a lawsuit filed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation against the U.S. government over its controversial domestic spying program that collects, stores, searches and analyzes in bulk the telephone records of millions of Americans.

The suit alleges that the government is violating the First Amendment right of association by gaining access to the phone records of political and activist organizations and their members.

WASHINGTON — On Friday, AT&T announced its intention to acquire Leap Wireless — the nation’s sixth-largest wireless provider, with 5 million subscribers.

WASHINGTON — On Friday, the Federal Communications Commission voted on its 15th MVPD report assessing the status of competition in the video industry.

WASHINGTON – On Thursday, Reps. Anna Eshoo, Mike Doyle, Ben Ray Lujan and Jim Matheson sent a letter to several major communications companies, including AT&T and Verizon, that asked them to explain their use of “below-the-line” fees. Customers must pay these fees in addition to the advertised cost of service.

WASHINGTON — On Monday, The Tribune Company announced that it had agreed to acquire 19 television stations from Local TV Holdings LLC.

WASHINGTON – On Thursday, a diverse coalition of more than 35 public-interest, civil-rights and community-based organizations sent a letter to Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill highlighting the importance of the Lifeline program.