Feds OK With Fuse/SiTV Meld

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SiTV Media's $226 million deal to buy music network Fuse from Madison Square Garden has passed antitrust muster with the feds.

Justice and the Federal Trade Commission divvy up reviews of deals over a certain price threshold, and the FTC Tuesday announced the early termination of that review, which means neither it nor Justice had any antitrust issues with the deal that required spin-offs or conditions or, in the extreme, suing to block it.

MSG will have a stake in the new combined company and a seat on the SiTV board. SiTV owns NUVOtv, a Hispanic-targeted network. The companies had said the two networks would be operated independently.

John Eggerton
John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.