JACKSONVILLE, Fla.—The Federal Communication Commission’s Media Bureau has approved the transfer of the license of television station WJAX-TV from Hoffman Communications, Inc. to Cox Television Jacksonville, LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of CMG Media Corporation.

In making the decision, the regulator denied a petition from DirecTV seeking to block the deal.

CMG had operated the station under a broadcast service agreement. The license transfer means that CMG would own two television stations in the Jacksonville Nielsen Designated Market Area (DMA).

In denying the DirecTV petition to block the transfer, the FCC noted that rulings in the Zimmer Radio of Mid-Missouri, Inc. v. FCC et al. case voiding the old Top-Four prohibition means that ownership of two affiliate stations in the same market is now legal.

While the FCC ruled that DirecTV had standing to move that the transfer be blocked, the agency ruled that “the proposed transaction fully complies with the Commission’s rules, including the post-Zimmer Radio Local Television Ownership Rule, and that there are no issues or potential public interest harms identified in the record that would require further consideration…Accordingly, we conclude that grant of the Application will result in public interest benefits and serve the public interest, convenience, and necessity.”

A letter detailing the FCC decision can be found here.

Xumo Enterprise has announced that Cox Communications is integrating 20 free ad-supported TV (FAST) channels from Xumo into its linear guide at no additional cost.

Xumo Enterprise is the business-to-business arm of the Xumo streaming and technology joint venture between Comcast and Charter Communications. 

Cox follows Xfinity as the latest MVPD to integrate Xumo-powered FAST channels into its linear guide, after the milestone integration on X1 and the Xfinity Stream app last year. The Xfinity and Cox launches represent an important evolution in the company’s efforts to make FAST more accessible to consumers on a growing range of connected devices, the companies said. 

Notably, Cox’s Contour TV customers can now find 20 Xumo-branded FAST channels integrated into their channel guide. The channels span a variety of genres from action, comedy and drama movies to game shows, kids and reality TV programs, plus much more.

Additionally, later this year, Sky will integrate its six new FAST channels into the TV guide on Sky Glass and Sky Stream devices. The channels, which just launched last month and feature a selection of previously aired, much-loved shows from Sky’s expansive catalog, are currently available within the Xumo Play app on Sky’s Entertainment OS-powered devices. By partnering with Xumo Enterprise to integrate the new channels into the guide experience, Sky can offer its customers a new way to discover and enjoy them alongside all their other favorite programming, the Xumo joint venture reported. 

These MVPD channel guide integrations are an example of Xumo’s ongoing effort to support consumers’ growing appetite for FAST. Earlier this year, Xumo found in a study that pay TV customers watch more FAST than cord-cutters or cord-nevers and that time-spent watching FAST during primetime hours rivals gaming, social media and cable TV.

ATLANTA—Cox Media Group (CMG) has announced that DirecTV removed all Cox Media Group (CMG) TV stations from its lineups after the two parties were unable to reach a new retransmission consent agreement. The old one expired on Feb. 2. 

Cox said DirecTV had refused its offer to extend negotiations. 

In recent weeks the two parties had been highlighting a growing possibility that the stations would be blacked out and blaming each other for the impasse. 

DirecTV said Cox Media Group (CMG) pulled its 12 stations from DirecTV, DirecTV Stream, and U-verse customers in 9 metro areas after rejecting the latest extension offer on the table while both sides continue to work to reach a new agreement.

“While we’ve been signing dozens of fair-market carriage deals that bring our high-quality programming to more than 50 million viewers, DirecTV has been dropping hundreds of TV stations and depriving its customers of the local content they want and paid DirecTV for,” said Marian Pittman, executive vice president of CMG. “Now DirecTV is at it again. We call on DirecTV to stop holding viewers hostage to its anti-consumer agenda.” 

“CMG is proud of our commitment to investing in high-quality local news and investigative journalism,” Pittman continued. DirecTV’s actions threaten those investments and hurt consumers who rely on us for local news, weather, and a robust slate of sports and other popular entertainment programming. Dropping CMG stations and blocking viewers from accessing local news and programming is DirecTV’s latest bullying tactic to try to harm local journalism.”

“We remain committed to negotiating in good faith to secure a fair carriage agreement with DirecTV, just as we’ve done with dozens of other TV providers that continue to deliver our award-winning stations to their customers,” Pittman added. 

In a statement on its website, DirecTV said that: "[t]his is an unfortunate and all too familiar path for CMG, which pulled its signals from DirecTV in its last renewal in 2021, agreeing to restore its stations just hours before the 2021 Super Bowl. CMG has also been down on Dish since November 2022, as well as threatened or pulled its signals from Comcast (Jan. 2020), Dish (March-April 2016 and Jan. 2020) DirecTV (Jan. 2017 and Jan.-Feb. 2021) Frontier (Jan. 2018), FuboTV (Feb. 2023), Suddenlink (Jan. 2021) and others."

"CMG is playing chicken with the industry, willfully ignoring the economics that its programming does not warrant a double-digit annual rate increase on top of an already exorbitant fee structure," the statement continued. "By pulling its stations, CMG intends to penalize its viewers twice – once when pulling the programming and again when they return it at an unwarranted higher rate – adding insult to injury. This is another clear example that underscores the need for a new path forward to combat rising retransmission rates, which have increased 270% since 2015 as detailed in the proposal from DIRECTV."

"DirecTV is committed to working towards a new agreement that will align the value and quality customers receive with the price they pay," the statement concluded. 

ATLANTA—Cox Media Group (CMG) has announced that its newly launched local streaming channel Neighborhood TV will be available on Xumo Play beginning December 1. 

Neighborhood TV (NTV), which formally launched in August 2023, is a free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) local news channel generating more than 100 million impressions monthly. The FAST channel is an extension of CMG’s linear TV business that currently covers 70 neighborhoods in Atlanta and 30 in Charlotte, with plans to launch in hundreds more neighborhoods across the country.

Xumo is a joint venture between Comcast and Charter, that was formed to develop and offer a next-generation streaming platform for the entire entertainment industry. 

To market the service, CMG said that a marketing program is planned, beginning in Atlanta, using a cross-platform ad campaign that includes Neighborhood TV tune-in commercials across CMG’s local broadcast channels. 

“We are pleased to bring these two trailblazers together, making it seamless for viewers to access the programming they want, and for advertisers to maximize their local reach,” said Cox Media Group executive chairman Steve Pruett in announcing the launch. “Through cross-company marketing efforts, we are leveraging our core CMG brands so that our linear airtime commercials for Neighborhood TV will support the further adoption of the new FAST channel on Xumo Play.” 

“Live news, whether national or local, has always been a top performing genre of programming on Xumo Play,” said Stefan Van Engen, vice president, content acquisition, Xumo Play. “Neighborhood TV’s hyper-local community coverage will be a great complement to our growing lineup of local and national channels, offering our customers more ways to get the news they care about most.”  

Ookla has released a new report on Q3 2023 mobile speeds in the U.S. that shows T-Mobile leading the list with average download speeds of 163.59Mbps. 

But the new Ookla data also shows that the U.S. mobile data speeds remain relatively sluggish by global standards. Overall, Ookla ranked the U.S. 15th in mobile download speeds at 97.09 Mbps, 15th in upload average speeds at 9.01 Mbps and 15th in average latency at 31 ms. 

In the U.S. T-Mobile was the fastest mobile operator with a median download speed of 163.59 Mbps followed by Verizon at 75.68 Mbps. T-Mobile also had the fastest median 5G download speed at 221.57 Mbps, as well as the lowest 5G multi-server latency of 50 ms. 

In measuring the Consistency of each operator’s performance, Ookla found that T-Mobile had the highest Consistency in the U.S. during Q3 2023, with 85.2% of results showing at least 5 Mbps download and 1 Mbps upload speeds. Verizon Wireless and AT&T followed at 80.8% and 78.4%, respectively.

In terms of the performance of video on their networks, Ookla reported that T-Mobile had the highest Video Score in the U.S. at 74.82 during Q3 2023. Verizon Wireless was a close second at 71.59 and AT&T was third at 69.54.

More information, including data on specific cities and regions, is available here.  

NEW YORK—The Fox Weather has inked new distribution deals with Samsung TV Plus and Cox that will expand the reach of the free ad-supported service to millions of new viewers. 

“As the fastest growing weather service in the country, we look forward to welcoming Samsung TV Plus users and Cox subscribers to Fox Weather’s innovative, best-in-class service,” president, Sharri Berg said in a statement. 

Starting August 23rd, Fox Weather will be available on Samsung TV Plus, Samsung’s free ad-supported TV (FAST) and video-on-demand (AVOD) service. Viewers with a 2016 or later Samsung Smart TV will be able to access the comprehensive weather service on channel 1010. It will also be made available on Samsung Galaxy devices, Samsung Smart Monitors, Samsung Family Hub and the web.

The new distribution agreement with Cox means that Cox Contour TV customers now have access to Fox Weather through Cox’s Expanded Basic package in several markets, including Las Vegas, Cleveland and Phoenix among others. This will add 1.7 million subscribers to Fox Weather’s distribution base. 

Since launching in October 2021, Fox Weather has added a number of distribution partners including Verizon Fios, The Roku Channel, fuboTV, YouTube TV, Fire TV Channels, Optimum, Spectrum, LG Channels, DirecTV Stream, Xumo Play, WOW!, Vidgo, TuneIn, Plex and Astound Broadband. The service continues to be available through Fox Television Station Diginets in top markets including New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago, among others.

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Faced with ongoing concerns that the proposed $8.6 billion deal for Tegna would give Standard General undo power in retransmission consent negotiations with pay TV providers, Standard General has issued a statement saying  “we have committed to waive certain contractual rights we would have had as a result of the transaction. This commitment further demonstrates the public interest benefits of the transaction.”

Standard General's Soo Kim also filed a letter on Dec. 16 with the FCC giving up those rights. 

In the statement the company also explained that: “Our proposed acquisition of TEGNA has been the subject of regulatory review that continues into the phase where the purchase price is increasing every day. The regulatory authorities have expressed concerns to us that our transaction could result in negative impacts on cable and satellite TV consumers in an environment where the government has a heightened focus on inflation.”

Opponents of the deal have expressed concerns that the deal would, among other problems, increase retransmission fees and increase the cost of pay TV for consumers. 

More specifically they have worried that the deal has been structured so that Standard General and the private equity group Apollo Global Management would be able to work together to hike retransmission agreements. 

If the deal is approved, Cox Media Group, which is owned by Apollo, will acquire Tegna stations in Austin (KVUE), Dallas (WFAA and KMPX) and Houston (KHOU and KTBU) from Standard General and CMG and funds managed by affiliates of Apollo Global Management would hold non voting securities in the company.

Standard General has repeatedly denied that those financial ties would result in any coordination in retransmission consent negotiations. 

In a letter filed Dec. 16 with the FCC, Standard General’s Soo Kim stressed that “as Standard General has previously stated, any impact of the Transactions on the  retransmission consent fees payable by multichannel video programming distributors  (“MVPDs”) is not central to Standard General’s thesis for the proposed Transactions.  Accordingly, in light of the cost of continued delay to the closing of the Transactions (the  “Closing”), consistent with the terms of the Agreement and Plan of Merger, dated February 22,  2022, Standard General hereby: 

"(1) voluntarily and irrevocably waives enforcement or other application of any term or condition of an RCA [retransmission consent agreement] that would, by reason of any of the Transactions, result in an RCA between Cox Media Group and any MVPD applying to any current Tegna station that will be controlled by Standard General after the Closing…

“(2) acknowledges and agrees that the intent and effect of such waiver is to permit any RCA with Tegna in effect as of the time immediately prior to the Closing to continue to apply to the Tegna Stations as of and following the Closing.”

NEW YORK—Ampersand has expanded its work with major cable and telecommunications companies Charter, Comcast, Cox and Altice by launching incremental reach capabilities powered by its AND Platform.

The AND Platform is a multiscreen TV planning, buying and measurement platform that was launched at the beginning of 2020. Ampersand is owned by Comcast Corporation, Charter Communications, Inc. and Cox Communications. 

Incremental reach on the AND Platform enables Ampersand's clients to use Charter, Comcast, Cox and Altice aggregated viewership insights to target households that have been un-exposed or under-exposed to a national TV campaign or to target specific regions that have been un/under-exposed with a multi-DMA heavy-up, the company said. 

"Marketers have historically shifted budgets to digital media to reach or bolster frequency for un-exposed and under-exposed traditional National TV viewers. Digital media alone is often inefficient and can add excess frequency to those already adequately reached via National TV," said Andrew Matero, Ampersand VP-Platform. "Ampersand solves this by offering incremental reach solutions across multi-screen TV inventory for every national advertiser to most efficiently increase reach enabled by scaled, deterministic data."

Ampersand has represented all of these providers for many years in the national spot marketplace, and in the last three years has expanded the partnerships to include national addressable. 

Ampersand also has the ability to use data insights across these television inventory owners to better plan, target, and measure their campaigns. 

The AND Platform accounts for the single largest source of TV inventory in the industry, encompassing linear, addressable and streaming TV inventory, providing marketers with reach across 80 million households, of which 52 million are addressable (more than 70% of all U.S. addressable households).

"Managing frequency on integrated campaigns has always provided challenges," said Altice president of news and advertising, Keith Bowen. "We are excited to complement our existing initiatives in this space with the AND platform as we continue to deliver our clients new product innovation and game-changing outcomes."

NEW YORK—Cox Media Group has announced a major expansion of its digital streaming strategy via a deal with Amagi, a provider of cloud-based SaaS technology for broadcast and connected TV.

To tap into the growing popularity of connected TVs and streaming, CMG chose Amagi to power its streaming services across connected tv, mobile, web and distribution. 

That agreement allowed CMG to embark on a major expansion of its free digital streaming strategy with the company’s digital offerings growing to 30 linear streams, nearly three-fold within a period of three months. 

Each of CMG’s 10 major markets now features a 24x7 Now Channel, a News Channel, and a market-specific Weather Channel.  These channels include the capability to feature live breaking news at a moment’s notice.

“CMG has always led the way, innovating across product, technology and content. Now, with Amagi’s best-in-class solutions, we’ve been able to take our streaming capabilities to the next level, fueling growth for the company,” said Marian Pittman, executive vice president, content, product & innovation of CMG. “Our collaboration with Amagi unlocks the potential to greatly expand our streaming footprint including our NOW Channels, News and Weather streams across CMG.”

To power and distribute this growing array of digital channels, CMG is using Amagi CLOUDPORT cloud playout service. In addition, Amagi ADS PLUS ad sales service enables CMG to improve ad monetization by selling their inventory—increasing fill rates and reducing blank slates—to create better ad experiences.

“We’re excited to see a powerhouse media company like CMG expand further in their digital offerings, taking advantage of the tremendous opportunity that lies in CTV and streaming content,” said Srinivasan KA, co-founder, Amagi. “As their technology partner, Amagi offers CMG the ability to scale their digital strategy quickly and cost-effectively to achieve unprecedented growth. We look forward to continuing to enhance CMG’s streaming capabilities, boosting their reach and revenue with the very best cloud-based solutions.”

“Our comprehensive streaming strategy fuels growth for our business by using centralized programming, shared content, high-quality video, optimized ad breaks, and more. We needed a platform and partner that helps enable that strategy,” added Mark Beck, senior vice president, and chief information officer for CMG. “Amagi is the premiere, cloud-based technology partner with roots in broadcast television – so they understand our opportunities. In addition to integrating with our CMG app ecosystem, Amagi is certified to integrate with high-profile distribution partners such as Redbox, Plex and others. And while our immediate focus is on CMG’s TV streaming business, the platform has also allowed us to quickly launch many of CMG’s radio shows into the video streaming world, further extending our video business.”

CINCINNATI – A group of local broadcasters led by The E.W. Scripps Company has launched a new effort to attract and better serve political advertisers on connected TV platforms. 

The Scripps Political CTV Consortium is being launched in what promises to be a record election-spending year, the broadcasters said.

Led by Scripps, the effort also involves Cox Media Group, Capitol Broadcasting Company, Graham Media Group and other broadcasters.

Samantha Osborne has been named senior director of national sales for the Scripps Political CTV Consortium in Washington, D.C.

“Collectively, we have a wall of inventory, and we’ve found a way to work together to make it easy for agencies to access that,” said Samantha Osborne, senior director of national sales for the Scripps Political CTV Consortium in Washington, D.C. “They can reach a high percentage of voters while making their own decisions but without having to work through numerous sales reps from different organizations. With the broadcasters we’ve assembled, we have billions of monthly premium connected TV impressions available for political advertisers.”

Experts project roughly $9 billion in spending in 2022, matching the presidential cycle of 2020, with as much as $1.8 billion of that expected to go to internet-delivered television platforms, or CTV, the group said. 

In 10 states alone – Florida, California, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Texas, North Carolina, Ohio, Wisconsin and Michigan – $3.9 billion is projected to be spent on political advertising, the group said. 

The Scripps Political CTV Consortium allows agencies to work with one representative to reach multiple publishers who have premium, guaranteed owned-and-operated inventory. 

Osborne said Scripps is exclusively working with Magnite, the world’s largest independent omnichannel sell-side advertising platform, to make CTV inventory available to agencies and programmatic buyers.

“Magnite is excited to be powering the technology for the Scripps Political CTV Consortium,” said Mike Laband, senior vice president of CTV Platform for Magnite. “Working closely with Scripps and the consortium media owners, we are providing the market with a unique, scaled offering for political CTV ad investment.”

The broadcasters will be pitching the idea that local news is where voters go to be informed during election seasons and that objective local broadcast journalism provides access to audiences that political advertisers are trying to reach.

“There are times when it makes sense to work together to produce a new and innovative product for the best interest of customers,” said John Conway, vice president of WRAL Digital for Capitol Broadcasting. “This is one of those times when we can provide industry-leading service by collaborating.”

ATLANTA & DALLAS—With the clock ticking toward the kickoff of Super Bowl LV on Feb. 7, Cox Media Group and AT&T announced that they had reached a new multi-year retransmission deal that would return Cox stations in 20 markets to AT&T/DirecTV customers.

The blackout of these stations began in the early hours of Feb. 2, impacting 26 stations in total. In five markets the impacted stations were the local CBS affiliate, which would have made Super Bowl LV unavailable to watch over traditional broadcast for AT&T customers in those markets.

The American Television Alliance (ATVA) had been extremely critical of the timing of the blackout, claiming that Cox has used the prospect of withholding the Super Bowl as a tactic in other retransmission negotiations.

Terms of the new agreement were not disclosed.

Here are the markets that had their CMG stations returned on Feb. 7:

• Alexandria, La. 
• Atlanta 
• Binghamton, N.Y. 
• Boston
• Charlotte, N.C. 
• Dayton, Ohio
• Eureka, Calif. 
• Greenville-Greenwood, Miss. 
• Idaho Falls-Pocatello, Idaho 
• Jacksonville, Fla. 
• Medford, Ore. 
• Memphis, Tenn. 
• Orlando, Fla.
• Pittsburgh 
• Seattle
• Spokane, Wash. 
• Syracuse, N.Y. 
• Tulsa, Okla.
• Yakima-Tri Cities, Wash. 
• Yuma, Ariz. 

DALLAS—AT&T's federal relations staff was making its case on Capitol Hill Friday, Feb. 5, for why the company, and its video viewers, were the aggrieved parties in its retransmission consent dispute with Cox Media Group and parent Apollo Global Management.

According to a source, the two sides continued to negotiate as AT&T reached out to legislators and Hill staffers, specifically staffers in offices of legislators whose constituents were affected by the blackouts, as well as the appropriate members of the Senate Commerce and House Energy & Commerce Committees that oversee communications issues. 

According to a copy of an e-mail to those legislators and Hill staffers providing an "Update on Negotiations with Cox Media Group" obtained by TV Tech's sister publications Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, AT&T said that DirecTV customers in five Cox markets would lose their "preferred access" to the Super Bowl Feb. 7. (AT&T conceded that CBS and the NFL would both be live streaming it.)

AT&T said that did not have to be the case. "We are committed to continuing to negotiate with CMG to come to a resolution that is good for our customers," it said, but urged CMG in the meantime "to immediately return its local stations to our customers while we negotiate." 

Broadcasters argue that the rise in retransmission consent fees is because their high-value content is finally getting a market rate after years of being undervalued. They also argue that blackouts, or as they see them, the removal of a signal when the contract for its carriage expires without a new contract at a fair price, is a negotiating tool it would be unfair for the government to deny them.

"[I]n the midst of an ongoing pandemic and just before Super Bowl LV, CMG pulled its stations from our DirecTV, U-verse, and AT&T TV customers," AT&T told Congress.

The company said it had agreed to pay retroactively whatever rate they eventually agreed on in continuing negotiations (called a "true up") if CMG had continued to provide them the signal during those negotiations, but that, instead, "CMG put our shared customers into the middle of a private business matter by intentionally blacking out local stations in 20 markets," and "in the midst of an ongoing pandemic" as well as on the eve of the Big Game.

Given that legislators hear it from their constituents when there are blackouts that affect their districts, then let the companies hear it, AT&T wanted to make it clear that "without CMG’s consent, AT&T cannot retransmit its stations to our customers. ... We share our customers’ frustration and recognize it’s time to end this cycle of increasing fees and ongoing blackouts."

The letter cites National Association of Broadcasters President Gordon Smith, himself a former member of Congress, and assurances he gave during a C-SPAN interview that broadcasters “recognize the public responsibility to not have service interruptions during this time.” But Smith also said in that interview that it takes two and he hoped "the MVPDs share that same public spiritedness and give broadcasters fair value." 

"Stations owned by CMG and their parent company, Wall Street mammoth Apollo Global Management, have previously staged blackouts at the most inconvenient times for customers," AT&T told legislators. "But their decision to do so now – in the middle of a pandemic and just prior to the Super Bowl—represents a new low in the never-ending cycle of higher fees and blackouts."

WASHINGTON—The FCC’s C-band auction is less than a month away, and the full list of qualified bidders has been announced. Among the 57 companies set to take part in the auction are big names like AT&T, Cox and T-Mobile.

The C-band auction, taking place on Dec. 8, will see the sale of spectrum in the lower 3.7-3.98 GHz band to be used for the development of 5G. The current occupants of the C-band, which includes satellite operators, are going to transition to the upper 200 GHz of the C-band.

To qualify for the C-band auction, the companies’ short-form applications were deemed complete and in compliance. As a result, they are now automatically registered for the auction. The FCC says that 17 applicants did not qualify to bid.

Of the 57 companies, 22 applied and were approved for rural building credits, while 18 were granted small business credits.

The full list of 57 qualifiers is available online. 

ATLANTA—Cox Media Group and Dish Network have announced that they have put an end to the retransmission contract dispute that has impacted 10 markets across the U.S. so those viewers can have access to critical information regarding the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

According to Cox, network stations from ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC have been blacked out in these areas since mid-January:

•  Binghamton, N.Y. 
•  Syracuse, N.Y. 
•  Medford, Ore. 
•  Spokane, Wash. 
•  Yakima-Tri Cities, Wash. 
•  Yuma, Ariz. 
•  Alexandria, La. 
•  Eureka, Calif. 
•  Greenville-Greenwood, Miss. 
•  Idaho Falls-Pocatello, Idaho 

All of the stations have been restored in these areas, effective immediately.

“We are pleased to be able to restore these channels on Dish so that our viewers in these communities can be informed and able to make the right decisions for the safety of their families,” said Kim Guthrie, CEO of Cox Media Group. “We appreciate Dish’s cooperation in agreeing to suspend our dispute so that we can help our viewers navigate through this uncertain time.”

It is unclear whether this is will lead to a permanent resolution or that the retransmission dispute and blackout will again take place at a time when the coronavirus is no longer considered a national emergency.

WASHINGTON—Common Cause officially filed a petition on Friday, May 10, to the FCC asking the commission to reject the proposed merger of Apollo Global Management, Cox Enterprises Inc. and Northwest Broadcasting Inc. Common Cause believes that the proposed merger would severely impact local TV coverage, particularly in an area like Dayton, Ohio.

If accepted, the merger would result in Apollo owning 25 TV stations. In a statement from former FCC commissioner, now Common Cause special adviser Michael Copps, he says that past merger history often shows that the quality of news and information can be diminished under private equity control.

In his statement, Copps specifically points out to the impact that could be had in Dayton, where Cox owns the largest TV station, four radio stations and the Dayton Daily News in the area, all of which would be included in the merger.

“The high level of consolidation in Dayton has already led to reporter layoffs and less robust coverage of local news,” reads Copps statement. “People in the Dayton community say they know more about what is going on in other parts of Ohio than they do in their own town. Apollo’s merger won’t do anything to improve the state of local news in Dayton but will likely make it much worse.

“Allowing a private equity firm to control a significant amount of television stations at a time when the broadcast marketplace is already highly consolidated undermines our values of localism, viewpoint diversity and more media ownership by women and people of color. The FCC should block this merger and uphold a framework that gives communities robust sources of local news and information.”

The full petition can be read here.

ATLANTA —Cox Communications is not holding its peace about the $4.6 billion marriage of Nexstar and Media General, announced in September and consummated yesterday. In the opening salvo of yet another publicly fought retransmission negotiation, the cable operator today said that Nexstar is holding it over a barrel.

“Cox Communications strongly urges the public to voice its opposition of the merger to the Federal Communications Commission. Nexstar is demanding Cox Communications customers pay triple the current price for retransmission consent or Nexstar will remove their signal from the Cox Communications lineup on Jan. 29,” the cable operator said in a statement. “Nexstar won’t even accept the very same rate that stations they manage agreed to just two weeks ago.”

Cox went on to quote Jonathan Kuperberg’s report in B&C regarding the merged companies’ size and its intent to raise revenues via retrans consent—a fairly typical strategy in TV station group mergers:

“...Nexstar sees the merger as a way to improve retransmission consent renegotiations... The new Nexstar Media Group’s 171 full power broadcast stations will be the most of any television group in the nation.”

The courtship between Nexstar and Media General began in late September when Nexstar made an unsolicited $4.1 billion bid for Media General and its 71 TV stations. At the time, Media General had already said yes to a $2.4 billion deal to merge with Meredith to create a group with 88 TV stations in 54 markets reaching 21 percent of U.S. TV households. Nexstar came in offering the $4.1 billion. Meredith balked at first, but then stood aside for a $60 million break-up fee. Media General then held out for the $4.6 billion purchase price announced yesterday.

Cox concluded its volley across the Nexstar-Media General bow with a protest of the merger.

“Nexstar should not be allowed to become a larger company, which would force more cable TV/satellite companies and ultimately customers to pay higher fees for retransmission consent. This merger is bad for business, bad for consumers and is not in the public interest.”

Also see... January 7, 2016
“TV Merger Triangle Unfolds”
The drama involving Media General, Nexstar and Meredith unfolded in successive press releases Thursday morning that read as if the bride switched grooms on the fly.