Defendants, including the Settling Defendants The Cox Entities, CBS and FOX, sold broadcast television spot advertising in the United States. You may be affected if you purchased such advertising spots directly from one or more of the Broadcaster Defendants in the United States between January 1, 2014 and December 31, 2018 (the “Class Period”). You have a right to know about the proposed Settlements reached with Settling Defendants in this class action lawsuit, and about your rights and options, before the Court decides whether to approve the Settlements.

The Court in charge of this case is the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, and the case is called In re: Local TV Advertising Antitrust Litigation, MDL No. 2867, Case No. 18-C-06785. The Settlements are between One Source Heating, Cooling, Inc., Thoughtworx, Inc., Hunt Adkins, Inc., and Fish Furniture, on behalf of the proposed Settlement Classes (together, “Plaintiffs”) and Cox Media Group, LLC, Cox Enterprises, Inc., CMG Media Corporation (f/k/a Terrier Media Buyer, Inc. and d/b/a Cox Media Group), and Cox Reps, Inc. (collectively, “The Cox Entities”), Fox Corporation (“FOX”), CBS Corporation k/n/a Paramount Global (“CBS”), and ShareBuilders, Inc. (“ShareBuilders”) (collectively, “Settling Defendants”).

The “Broadcaster Defendants” are CBS, Cox Media Group LLC, Dreamcatcher Broadcasting, LLC, FOX, Griffin Communications, LLC, Meredith Corporation, Nexstar Media Group, Inc., Raycom Media, Inc, The E.W. Scripps Company, Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc., TEGNA, Inc., Tribune Broadcasting Company, LLC, and Tribune Media Company. ShareBuilders is not a Broadcaster Defendant, but rather Plaintiffs allege it aided the Broadcaster Defendants in effectuating their conspiracy.

Plaintiffs claim that the Broadcaster Defendants engaged in a conspiracy to fix, raise, maintain, or stabilize the price levels of broadcast television spot advertising. Plaintiffs further claim that Cox Reps, Inc. and Katz Media Group, Inc.,¹ operating as “Sales Rep Firms,” as well as ShareBuilders, facilitated the exchange of communication between the Broadcaster Defendants. Plaintiffs further claim that they were injured as a result of an alleged conspiracy between the Sales Rep Firms, Broadcaster Defendants and ShareBuilders’ (collectively, “Defendants”) through the payment of artificially inflated prices.

Settling Defendants deny these allegations and all alleged wrongdoing associated with Plaintiffs’ claims. The Court previously dismissed ShareBuilders from the lawsuit, but has not otherwise decided who is right or wrong. Instead, the settling parties have agreed to these Settlements to avoid the risk, cost, and inconvenience of further litigation.

Plaintiffs’ case is still proceeding against other non-Settling Defendants, who deny all wrongdoing.  Those non-Settling Defendants may be subject to separate settlement, judgments, or class certification orders, or may succeed in their defenses.  If applicable, you will receive a separate notice regarding the progress of the litigation and any resolution of claims against the non-Settling Defendants.

¹Katz Media Group, Inc. petitioned for bankruptcy protection in March 2018, and a bankruptcy plan discharged any of Plaintiffs’ claims against it in May 2019.

In a class action, one or more people called Class Representatives (in this case Plaintiffs One Source Heating, Cooling, Inc., Thoughtworx, Inc., Hunt Adkins, Inc., and Fish Furniture) sue on behalf of people and/or companies who have similar claims. All these people are a class or class members. Bringing a case, such as this one, as a class action allows resolution of many similar claims for persons and entities that might be economically too small to bring in individual actions. One court resolves the issues for all class members, except for those who exclude themselves from the class.

Settling Defendants deny that they did anything wrong. Plaintiffs and Settling Defendants have agreed to the Settlements to avoid the risk, cost, and inconvenience of further litigation. The Court has not decided in favor of Plaintiffs or Settling Defendants. Plaintiffs and their attorneys think the Settlements are in the best interests of the Settlement Classes and are fair, reasonable, and adequate. Settling Defendants have denied, and continue to deny, all allegations made by Plaintiffs.

Each of the four Settlement Classes consist of the same members (“Settlement Class Members”): all persons and entities in the United States who purchased Broadcast Television Spot Advertising directly from one or more Broadcaster Defendants in a designated market area (“DMA”) within which two or more of the Broadcaster Defendants sold broadcast television spot advertisements on broadcast television stations, including anyone who directly paid one or more Defendants for all or a portion of the cost of such broadcast television spot advertisements from January 1, 2014 to and including December 31, 2018 (the “Class Period”).

Broadcast Television Spot Advertising means advertising spots that run on a broadcast television channel or channels that use public airwaves to transmit programs available to any television set within range of a broadcast transmitter, or that are retransmitted via multichannel video programming distributors (“MVPDs”) such as cable, fiber optic networks (e.g., Verizon FiOS), satellite (e.g., DirecTV), and virtual MVPDs (e.g., Hulu + Live TV, fuboTV, YouTube TV). For the sake of clarity, Broadcast Television Spot Advertising includes advertising spots sold by and run on local broadcast stations that are usually affiliated with broadcast TV networks such as ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, The CW, and MyTVNetwork. It does not include advertising spots that run on channels solely available through MVPDs or virtual MVPDs, such as ESPN, CNN, HGTV, Bravo, MSNBC, TBS, FX, or Fox News Channel.

The Broadcaster Defendants are CBS Corporation, Cox Media Group LLC, Dreamcatcher Broadcasting, LLC, FOX, Griffin Communications, LLC, Meredith Corporation, Nexstar Media Group, Inc., Raycom Media, Inc, The E.W. Scripps Company, Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc., TEGNA, Inc., Tribune Broadcasting Company, LLC, and Tribune Media Company. Purchases made through Cox Reps (including Telerep and HRP) or Katz (including Continental, Millennium, and Eagle) from any of the Broadcaster Defendants also qualify for inclusion in the Settlement Classes.

The DMAs within which two or more of the Broadcaster Defendants sold broadcast television spot advertisements on broadcast television stations are available on the Important Documents page or you may call 1-844-717-0648 to request a list.

Excluded from the Settlement Classes are Defendants, their parent companies, subsidiaries, affiliates, officers, directors, employees, assigns, successors, agents, or alleged co-conspirators; the court, court staff, defense counsel, all respective immediate family members of these excluded entities; federal governmental entities and instrumentalities of the federal government; and states and their subdivisions, agencies and instrumentalities.

If you are not sure whether you are a Settlement Class Member, or have any other questions about the Settlements, you can review the Settlement Agreements located on the Important Documents page, or call toll-free at 1-844-717-0648.

The Cox Entities will pay $37,000,000, FOX will pay $6,000,000, and CBS will pay $5,000,000 (collectively $48,000,000) for payments to Settlement Classes, along with cooperation to prosecute this case against the remaining defendants. In addition, ShareBuilders will provide the Plaintiffs with valuable cooperation. Settlement Class Members who timely submit a valid claim will receive payments, after deducting costs associated with Settlement administration and notice, taxes, class representative incentive awards, attorneys’ fees (not to exceed 33.33% of the Settlements), and reimbursement for certain litigation costs and expenses (not to exceed $6,000,000).

Settlement Class Members who filed a valid and timely Claim Form will receive compensation on a pro rata basis, to the extent economically feasible. If the total final claim payment is equal to or less than $5.00, no distribution will be made to that claimant, and the claimant will be notified that there will be no distribution given the de minimis value of the claim. If additional settlements are reached with non-settling Defendants, more money may become available.

To be eligible to receive a payment from the Settlements, you must have submitted a valid Claim Form by October 26, 2023.

If you did not submit a valid Claim Form by October 26, 2023, you will not receive a payment, but you will be bound by the Court’s judgment.

Payments will be made to Settlement Class Members who submitted valid and timely Claim Form after the Court grants “final approval” to the Settlements. If the Court approves the Settlements, there may be appeals. It’s always uncertain whether these appeals can be resolved and resolving them can take time. Please be patient.

If you are a Settlement Class Member, unless you excluded yourself from the Settlements, you cannot sue, continue to sue, or be part of any other lawsuit against Settling Defendants about the claims released in the Settlements. It also means that all the decisions by the Court will bind you. The Released Claims and Releasees are defined in the Settlement Agreements and describe the legal claims that you gave up if you stayed in the Settlements. The Settlement Agreements are available on the Important Documents page.

The deadline to request exclusion from the Settlements was October 26, 2023.

No. Unless you excluded yourself, you gave up any right to sue Settling Defendants for the claims that these Settlements resolve. If you have a pending lawsuit against any of the Settling Defendants, speak to your lawyer in that lawsuit immediately. You must have excluded yourself from the Settlements to continue your own lawsuit. If you properly excluded yourself from the Settlements, you will not be bound by any orders or judgments related to the Settlements.

No. You will not get money from any Settlement for which you exclude yourself. If you excluded yourself from any Settlements, you should not have sent in a Claim Form asking for benefits from that Settlement.

No. The Court has appointed Hausfeld LLP as Settlement Class Counsel. You will not be charged for these lawyers. If you want to be represented by your own lawyer, you may hire one at your own expense.

The Order Granting Plaintiffs' Motion for Interim Payment of Attorneys' Fees, Reimbursement of Expenses, and Class Representative Service Awards is available on the Important Documents page.

The deadline to object to the Settlements was October 26, 2023.

Objecting is simply telling the Court that you don’t like something about the Settlements. You can object to the Settlements only if you do not exclude yourself from the Settlements. Excluding yourself from the Settlements is telling the Court that you don’t want to be part of the Settlements. If you exclude yourself from the Settlements, you have no basis to object to the Settlements because it no longer affects you.

The Settlements received final approval on December 7, 2023.

If you did nothing, you will not get a payment from the Settlements. Unless you excluded yourself, you will not be able to start a lawsuit, continue with a lawsuit, or be part of any other lawsuit against Settling Defendants about the legal issues in this case, ever again.

The notice summarizes the proposed Settlements. You can visit the Important Documents page to review the complete settlement documents, papers, and pleadings filed in this litigation, or contact the Settlement Administrator for more information:

Local TV Advertising Settlement
c/o JND Legal Administration
PO Box 91068
Seattle WA 98111

info@TVAdsSettlement.com
1-844-717-0648