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Univision/HBC Merger Approved 9-23-2003rronlineFCC Grants HBC-Univision Merger...Much-debated deal goes through at last... Fifteen months after the deal was announced, the FCC late today granted the controversial merger of the two Hispanic-media giants by a 3-2 vote, with Democratic Commissioners Jonathan Adelstein and Michael Copps dissenting. HBC's stockholders approved the merger in February, and the companies had hoped to close the deal in March. But the FCC at the 11th hour requested more information from both companies — and had precious little time to review that information because its resources were spread thin as it completed the media-ownership rules review. The merger approval is a defeat for HBC rival Spanish Broadcasting System, which has repeatedly and fiercely tried to block the deal. From AP: The government approved Univision Communications Inc.'s $3.1 billion purchase Hispanic Broadcasting Corp. Monday, allowing the nation's largest Spanish-language media conglomerate to grow bigger yet. The three Republicans said in a joint statement that the deal "will give Hispanic media a better opportunity to compete against big media companies, capturing more advertising revenue to allow it to expand unique language and cultural offerings to its audiences." Democratic FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein said the "FCC is turning a deaf ear to millions of Spanish-speaking Americans." Univision already owns the Univision and TeleFutura TV networks, the Galavision cable network and 50 television stations nationwide. With the merger, Univision would have the top Spanish-language broadcast TV network, cable channel, record label, Internet site and radio network, as well as the largest group of television and radio stations. In San Diego, Univision is on channel 17, KBNT, but TeleFutura does not have a local station here. KBNT also runs translator stations on on channel 49 in Oceanside and 62 in La Jolla. HBC runs two stations on 102.9 and 106.5. In Los Angeles, Univision is on channel 34 and TeleFutura is on 46. HBC runs four stations on 107.5 and 101.9, 103.9, and 98.3. Under the plan, Los Angeles-based Univision would acquire HBC's 68 radio stations but would be required to sell two of them — one each in Houston and Albuquerque. The FCC decision had been expected for weeks. Two weeks ago, the FCC planned to announce a decision but postponed it at the last minute as commissioners reworked their statements about the deal. The final decision supported Univision's position that the Spanish-language media do not make up a market separate from English-language media. The company had argued that it has a relatively small presence in broadcasting overall and it competes with English and Spanish-language networks for advertisers and viewers who often are bilingual.
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