One of Standard General’s appeals to get its acquisition of Tegna approved by the Federal Communications Commission before its financing expires on May 22 was dismissed Monday by a panel of judges from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
A decision by the FCC’s Media Bureau sending the matter for a hearing by an administrative law judge will stretch out the review of the deal beyond May 22, when financing for the deal expires, effectively killing the deal, according to Standard General.
Standard General had asked the court to treat the Media Bureau’s hearing designation as a final order that it could rule on, but the court instead granted an order to dismiss, deciding that an appeal filed after a bureau decision but before resolution by the full commission is subject to dismissal as incurably premature.
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Still pending is Standard General’s mandamus request that the court require the FCC to approve the transfer of Tegna’s TV station licenses to Standard General.
The court has put the request on an expedited schedule and a decision could come after opponents of the deal submit briefs on April 11 and Standard General’s reply is filed on April 14.
“We think this appeal is also a significant uphill climb for Standard General,” said former FCC chief of staff Blair Levin, now policy adviser to New Street Research. “We understand that the panel that will rule on this motion is the same one that ruled on the previous motion, which adds to the uphill slope for Standard General.”
Levin adds that “if Standard General loses, we think that will be the end.”
Standard General could appeal to the full Court of Appeals and or to the Supreme Court “but either route is exceedingly unlikely to succeed,” Levin said.
