Sinclair Files With the U.S. Supreme Court Regarding Media Ownership Rules

Sinclair Files With the U.S. Supreme Court Regarding Media Ownership Rules

BALTIMORE, March 3 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:SBGI) announced today that it has filed in the U.S. Supreme Court a conditional cross-petition for a writ of certiorari to review the judgment of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. The judgment made by the Third Circuit in June 2004 pertained to several media ownership rules, including those relating to the ownership of more than one television station in a single market. The Third Circuit stayed the effectiveness of the these rules and ordered the FCC to continue to enforce the 8-voices test, which (among other things) requires that at least eight independently owned and operated full power television stations remain in a relevant designated market area after a proposed combination.

In prior litigation brought by Sinclair in 2002, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals remanded the 8-voices test to the FCC and ordered the agency to either justify or eliminate the rule. The FCC responded, stating and explicitly concluding that the 8-voices test could not be justified, that "it is not necessary in the public interest to promote competition," and that "retaining the current rule does not promote, and may even hinder, program diversity and localism." Subsequently and in June 2004, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia ordered the FCC to continue to apply the 8-voices test.

In this most recent filing, Sinclair has petitioned the Supreme Court to determine:

1) Whether the Third Circuit in effect impermissibly overruled the D.C. Circuit by ordering the FCC to continue to enforce the 8-voices test, a rule that the D.C. Circuit found to be insufficiently deregulatory and arbitrary and capricious and that the FCC on remand from the D.C. Circuit concluded could not be justified.

2) Whether the Third Circuit, in conflict with the decisions of the D.C. Circuit, incorrectly applied the deregulatory mandate of Section 202(h) of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 (which requires the FCC to eliminate rules which are not "necessary" in the public interest) and therefore failed to set aside the restrictions retained by the FCC on local television ownership, including the top four rule, which prohibits mergers of the top four-ranked television stations in a market.

3) Whether the Third Circuit erred in upholding, against First Amendment challenges, the local television ownership rule of the FCC that singles out and places unique restrictions on television broadcasters, on the ground that a rational basis supported the regulation; that is, did the Third Circuit uphold an ownership restriction that targets television broadcasters and limits their speech, but not the speech of other media companies, such as cable operators, Internet service and content providers, and satellite operators.

Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc., one of the largest and most diversified television broadcasting companies, will own and operate, program or provide sales services to 62 television stations in 39 markets, after pending transactions. Sinclair's television group includes FOX, WB, ABC, CBS, NBC, and UPN affiliates and reaches approximately 24% of all U.S. television households. For more information, please visit Sinclair's website at http://www.sbgi.net/.

Source: Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc.

CONTACT: Barry Faber, VP/General Counsel of Sinclair Broadcast Group, +1-410-568-1500

Web site: http://www.sbgi.net/

Company News On-Call: http://www.prnewswire.com/comp/110203.html

------- Profile: Ent