Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) has already asked the GAO for a study on the impact of various types of operations agreements that allow a television station to have a hand in operating another that it does not own, and now he’s asked FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler to wait for it to be completed.
“The agency has before it a number of proposed sales of broadcast stations,” wrote Rockefeller. “Some of those transactions envision the use of shared services agreements (SSAs) that would allow operation of some ‘purchased’ stations without assuming full ownership. Various groups have raised concerns that some SSAs are used in broadcast sale to avoid violating the FCC’s media ownership limits.”
