Apollo-Sony bid for Paramount could face antitrust hurdles from feds: sources

Published

5 months ago

May 7, 2024

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Apollo Global Management and Sonys bid to buy Paramount Global faces significant hurdles to get the deal past Democratic-led federal regulators amid antitrust concerns, The Post has learned.

Paramount which ended exclusive merger talks with Skydance Media last Friday owns the CBS network, its Hollywood studio and 28 local stations including 17 CBS affiliates in markets like New York, Chicago and Los Angeles.

Apollo, which teamed with Sony to make a $26 billion all-cash bid for the Shari Redstone-controlled media conglomerate, faces an uphill fight to circumvent the FCCs 39% cap on the reach by local affiliates should the merger be approved by Paramounts board, multiple sources told The Post.

Apollo owns TV channels that reach 11% of US households through its stake in cable company Cox Media Group, a media investment banker told The Post.

Meanwhile, Paramounts local stations account for a 39% reach, according to the banker putting the total of the combined company well above the FCCs threshold.

Competitors may point out that Apollo’s ownership will exceed the 39% national ownership cap, which in itself is a regulatory anachronism but is nevertheless a real thing at the FCC,” Adonis Hoffman, who served as the agencys senior legal advisor and chief of staff from 2013 to 2015, told The Post.

Apollo, however, is banking on an arcane FCC loophole called the UHF Discount which cuts in half the percentage of households counted by stations with channels in the UHF bandwidth to get below the cap, a source familiar with its thinking said.

Under the discount passed in 1985 and revoked in 2016 before being reinstated the following year by then-Republican FCC Chair Ajit Pai Paramount only reaches 25% of households and Cox about 5%, according to the investment banker.

Pai pushed through the UHF Discount in 2017 days before right-leaning Sinclair Broadcast Group announced an agreement to buy Tribune Media, which without the discount would have put the combined company well over the cap.

But there is a significant chance the FCC scraps the UHF Discount because Joe Biden-nominated Chair Jessica Rosenworcel believes it is outdated, several sources said.

The FCC created the discount, so it can eliminate it, said Benton Senior Fellow Gigi Sohn, a progressive Democrat whose nomination to be an FCC Commissioner fell apart last year.

Sohn pointed out that there is precedent for reinstating the cap to help a merger, so it could also be eliminated to stop a deal.

[Eliminating] the UHF discount could be considered, particularly if there is a proposed acquisition that places the issue before the FCC by relying on the discount to comply with the ownership rules, said lawyer David Oxenford in a blog post that did not specifically mention the Apollo offer.

Should the FCC get rid of the UHF Discount, the agency could ask for Apollo or Paramount to divest some of the channels to get below the threshold instead of outright blocking the merger, sources said.

Presently, there are overlaps in three of the markets in which Paramount and Cox serve, the banker said.

The Apollo and Sony bid could also face scrutiny from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US (CFIUS), which might not be comfortable with a Japanese company owning CBS.

There is further worry that the Federal Trade Commission could step in to prevent Sony, which has its own film division, from scooping up a second movie studio.

Hollywood mogul Jeffrey Katzenberg said Apollo faced a high bar to attain FCC approval for another reason. PE firms have held broadcast licenses both for TV and radio though never for one of the big three national networks.

The FCC is going to allow a private equity firm to take that license? Just think about that, Katzenberg, a key Biden advisor, said during an “Axios BFD Talks” event on Sunday night in Los Angeles:

This is the license to operate the No. 1 broadcast network in America, which the FCC has an absolute right to approve. And they’re going to say that there’s a benefit for that being in the hands of private equity? I don’t know. That’s a high bar, particularly in the regulatory environment right now.”

Apollo, led by Marc Rowan, has already had a potential merger between Standard General and broadcast station owner Tegna essentially killed by Rosenworcel.

The firm helped finance the bid by Standard General, but the FCCdecided last year not to vote on the proposed merger, leaving it to wither away.

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Rosenworcel was uncomfortable with Apollo controlling Tegna and Cox, even though Apollo claimed it would be a passive Tegna investor, sources said at the time. Also, she was not keen on a private equity firm gaining such a big foothold in television broadcasting, the sources added.

Standard General sued the FCC in March, alleging the agency discriminated against its offer because it preferred to have African-American Byron Allen owning Tegna.

The FCC seems to have no tolerance for private equity-backed media ownership, as shown by its recent disapproval — and utter disrespect– of the Standard General bid to buy Tegna last year,” Hoffman said.

“As for timing, the FCC has shown that it really knows how to slow-roll a deal. The 180-day merger shot clock, which is a guide not a rule, has been ignored at the will of the Chair. None of these signs would bode well for an easy or early approval of an Apollo bid.”

Hoffman noted that the FCC is currently trying to force Nexstar Media Group to fully divest from New York’s WPIX-Channel 11 which it was supposed to divest in a recent merger, but allegedly did not.

“It’s at least a window into the thinking of this current FCC,” Hoffman said.

UK

Canterbury MP Rosie Duffield quits Labour – criticising Sir Keir Starmer in resignation letter

Published

2 hours ago

September 28, 2024

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Canterbury MP Rosie Duffield quits Labour - criticising Sir Keir Starmer in resignation letter

Canterbury MP Rosie Duffield has resigned from the Labour Party.

The 53-year-old MP is the first to jump ship since the general election and in her resignation letter criticised the prime minister for accepting thousands of pounds worth of gifts.

She told Sir Keir Starmer the reason for leaving now is “the programme of policies you seem determined to stick to”, despite their unpopularity with the electorate and MPs.

In her letter she accused the prime minister and his top team of “sleaze, nepotism and apparent avarice” which are “off the scale”.

“I’m so ashamed of what you and your inner circle have done to tarnish and humiliate our once proud party,” she said.

Sir Keir has faced backlash after a Sky News report revealed he had received substantially more freebies than any other MP since becoming Labour leader.

Since December 2019, the prime minister received £107,145 in gifts, benefits, and hospitality – a specific category in parliament’s register of MPs’ interests.

Ms Duffield, who has previously clashed with the prime minister on gender issues, attacked the government for pursuing “cruel and unnecessary” policies as she resigned the Labour whip.

She criticised the decision to keep the two-child benefit cap and means-test the winter fuel payment, and accused the prime minister of “hypocrisy” over his acceptance of free gifts from donors.

“Since the change of government in July, the revelations of hypocrisy have been staggering and increasingly outrageous,” she said.

“I cannot put into words how angry I and my colleagues are at your total lack of understanding about how you have made us all appear.”

Ms Duffield also mentioned the recent “treatment of Diane Abbott”, who said she thought she had been barred from standing by Labour ahead of the general election, before Sir Keir said she would be allowed to defend her Hackney North and Stoke Newington seat for the party.

Her relationship with the Labour leadership has long been strained and her decision to quit the party comes after seven other Labour MPs were suspended for rebelling by voting for a motion calling for the two-child benefit cap to be abolished.

“Someone with far-above-average wealth choosing to keep the Conservatives’ two-child limit to benefit payments which entrenches children in poverty, while inexplicably accepting expensive personal gifts of designer suits and glasses costing more than most of those people can grasp – this is entirely undeserving of holding the title of Labour prime minister,” she said.

Ms Duffield said she will continue to represent her constituents as an independent MP, “guided by my core Labour values”.

UK

King Charles hails ‘uniquely special’ Scotland as it marks Holyrood milestone – before being hugged by woman

Published

2 hours ago

September 28, 2024

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King Charles hails 'uniquely special' Scotland as it marks Holyrood milestone - before being hugged by woman

The King has paid tribute to Scotland as a “uniquely special place” for the Royal Family as he marked the 25th anniversary of the Scottish parliament.

At the ceremony to commemorate a quarter of a century since parliament opened at Holyrood, the King said: “Speaking from a personal perspective, Scotland has always had a uniquely special place in the hearts of my family and myself.

“My beloved grandmother was proudly Scottish, my late mother especially treasured the time spent at Balmoral, and it was there in the most beloved of places, where she chose to spend her final days.”

He said we are all “united by our love of Scotland”, paying tribute to its “natural beauty”, “strength of character”, “diversity of its people”, “passions and frequently deeply held beliefs”.

“From the central belt to the north Highlands, across the islands in Ayrshire, in the Borders, the cities, towns and villages, all the coastal communities, who I wonder, could not fail to be moved by this complex Caledonian kaleidoscope?,” he asked as presiding officer Alison Johnstone and the Queen sat beside him.

After he gave the speech, the King was hugged by a member of the public – who said she did so “because of him being unwell”.

The 75-year-old was diagnosed with cancer in February but has since returned to public duties.

Yvonne Macmillan, 59, from East Renfrewshire, attended the anniversary ceremony with her husband Russell who is registered blind and chosen as a “local hero” for work in their area.

“I asked him if he was feeling better and if I could give him a hug. I actually said to him: ‘Can I hug you?’,” she said.

“As I hugged him I said, ‘God bless you’, so it was like God giving him a hug.”

While Sir Tony Blair’s Labour government legislated for Scottish devolution in 1997 – parliament officially opened at Holyrood on 1 July 1999.

The King has made six visits to the parliament since 1999 – while his mother Queen Elizabeth II made 10 visits during her lifetime.

Scottish First Minister John Swinney is one of a number of MSPs who have been at Holyrood since the start of devolution.

He said in his own speech in Edinburgh on Saturday that the parliament has “placed itself at the very heart of the nation”, describing it as a “vessel of enlightenment, invention and creativity”.

The SNP’s Christine Grahame is another MSP who has been there since the start.

“Free tuition, free prescriptions, game-changing policies to tackle child poverty, the ban on smoking, the baby box, ScotRail back in public ownership – none of this would have been possible without the Scottish parliament and the strength of our commitment to self-determination,” she said on Saturday.

The King said the devolved parliament has the ability to “touch and to improve the lives of so many individuals”.

But he added that “there remains much more to be done” for Scotland, the rest of the UK, particularly with regards to climate change.

“Let this moment therefore be the beginning of the next chapter,” he told those assembled.

“The achievement of the past and the commitment shown in the present give us the soundest basis for confidence in the future.”

UK

Phone thief caught red-handed hours after snatching device from woman’s hand in Croydon

Published

2 hours ago

September 28, 2024

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Phone thief caught red-handed hours after snatching device from woman's hand in Croydon

A moped riding phone thief was caught red-handed after police tracked the device down hours after he snatched it from a woman’s hand.

CCTV footage released by police showed a masked moped rider mount the pavement in Croydon, south London, to swipe a phone from a woman’s hand on 6 March, while another victim had theirs stolen while they waited for a bus an hour later.

Amari Scott, 20, looked surprised when confronted by officers inside a shop, where he was found with two mobile phones.

“We’ve just had a moped rob a mobile phone off the pavement and the phone is pinging in this location,” one of the officers told him in body-worn camera footage before Scott was handcuffed and led away.

Police also recovered a stolen motorbike and Scott, from Sutton, south London, was later jailed for four years.

Two teenagers who committed four robberies in the space of just half an hour were also arrested as part of a crackdown in Croydon.

Aged 16 and 17, the teens were issued with referral orders after pleading guilty to charges of robbery, attempted robbery and attempted grievous bodily harm.

They were behind a spree of eight robberies across Croydon and nearby Bromley, including four within 30 minutes on the morning of 5 August.

Their crimes, which included the knife point robbery of a rough sleeper outside Croydon library, were caught on CCTV.

One of the teenagers tried to discard a knife before she was arrested after a foot chase, telling officers: “The knife wasn’t mine”.

The other ran away, leaving a knife and his bag, but was lying in bed at home when he was arrested shortly after.

The Metropolitan Police said officers are intensifying efforts to tackle robbery and theft, encouraging victims to report incidents as they happen to increase the chances of catching the criminals.

Chief Inspector James Weston said: “We understand the impact that robbery has on victims – it is invasive and frightening.

“That’s why our teams are working so hard to deter and catch offenders to reassure our local community.

“Thanks to the hard work of officers, our partners and community grassroots organisations, we are stepping up our efforts and tackling the issues that matter most to the people of Croydon.”