The American Cable Association is condemning the recently announced shared services agreement between Belo’s KMSB and Raycom Media’s KOLD.

Belo is shutting down news operations at KMSB, a Fox-affiliate, and turning those duties over to CBS-affiliate KOLD.  Dozens of KMSB employees are expected to lose their jobs as a result of the agreement.

“With breathtaking disdain for the public interest, Raycom is seizing effective control of Tucson’s CBS and Fox affiliates,” ACA president and CEO Matthew Polka said in a statement. Read more

The American Cable Association is urging the FCC to block the sale of Topeka’s KTKA, asserting that the deal would drive up retrans fees.

In February, PBC Broadcasting agreed to buy ABC-affiliate KTKA, pending FCC approval. PBC Broadcasting currently has shared services agreements with New Vision Television in two markets–Youngstown, OH and Savannah, GA–where New Vision also owns stations. The SSAs create virtual duopolies in those markets and the ACA fears that the KTKA sale will lead to a virtual triopoly in Topeka, where New Vision currently owns the NBC- and Fox-affiliates.

“ACA is drawing the line in the Topeka market because based on empirical data from many local TV markets, we know that TV stations that jointly negotiate retransmission consent deals (especially the affiliates of ABC, CBS, NBC, and FOX) charge pay television providers higher fees than stations that bargain on their own,” ACA president and CEO Matthew Polka said in a statement. “Consumers in Topeka will be injured by this deal.”