Six of the nation’s largest broadcast television companies have reached a tentative settlement with the Department of Justice over claims that they worked to drive up ad prices by sharing competitively sensitive information with each other.
The proposed deal, which must still be approved by a judge, follows an antitrust complaint alleging that the firms — Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc., Raycom Media Inc., Tribune Media Co., Meredith Corp., Griffin Communications, and Dreamcatcher Broadcasting — exchanged revenue information and other nonpublic sales data that helped them gauge whether competitors would raise, lower or maintain existing ad prices.
The practice allowed the companies, which reported a combined $5.8 billion in revenue last year, to “disrupt the normal competitive process of spot advertising in markets across the United States,” Assistant Attorney General Makan Delrahim said in a statement.
“Advertisers rely on competition among owners of broadcast television stations to obtain reasonable advertising rates,” he said. “This unlawful sharing of information lessened that competition and thereby harmed the local businesses and the consumers they serve.”
As part of the seven-year settlement, the companies agreed not only to stop sharing the information under scrutiny, but to institute new antitrust policies and reporting measures to prevent similar actions in the future.
