Sinclair Amends Divestiture Proposals In Bid To Save Tribune Deal

Plan B

SINCLAIR BROADCAST GROUP is not giving up on its bid to acquire the TRIBUNE MEDIA stations despite FCC Chairman AJIT PAI's move to send the deal to a hearing before an Administrative Law Judge, withdrawing its proposed divestiture of TRIBUNE independent WGN-TV/CHICAGO in its entirety and also withdrawing the proposed divestiture of TRIBUNE CW affiliates KDAF-TV/DALLAS and KIAH-TV/HOUSTON and moving the latter two stations into a divestiture trust to be operated and sold by an independent trustee.

Repeating the assertion that it had fully complied with the FCC rules and had been transparent in its dealings, SINCLAIR, in a release, said, "we call upon the FCC to approve the modified TRIBUNE acquisition in order to bring closure to this extraordinarily drawn-out process and to provide certainty to the thousands of TRIBUNE employees who are looking for closure."  SINCLAIR's deal raised objections to its spinoff of stations to third parties with familial or business links to the company and SINCLAIR's retention of operation or sales duties for the divested stations.

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