McLEAN, Va.—Tegna has promoted Scott Gill to vice president of operations, responsible for overseeing engineering, technology and sports operations across the group’s 64 local stations.

He’ll be tasked with leading efforts to strengthen station performance, modernize infrastructure and support the delivery of the company’s journalism product across broadcast, streaming and mobile platforms.

Gill, who joined Tegna in 2012, was most recently head of technology and sports operations.

[Also Read: Court Denies Stay of Nexstar-Tegna Merger]

“Scott brings a unique combination of operational expertise, technical leadership and innovation to this position,” said Kurt Rao, Tegna executive vice president, chief technology and digital products officer. “He's played a critical role in advancing our stations’ technology, and he has the expertise we need to strengthen our operations as we continue to shape the future of local media.”

As head of technology and sports operations, Gill defined and executed technological and operational strategies across Tegna’s broadcast station while supporting its NBA, WNBA, NHL, MLB and other live sports properties, as well as nationally syndicated programming.

He also directed and managed Tegna’s drone and helicopter technologies and pilot operations.

“I’m excited to take on this new role leading tech and operations teams across Tegna,” Gill said. “Local journalism depends on strong technology. I look forward to working with our station leaders to strengthen the tools our newsrooms rely on to serve our communities.”

Before joining Tegna, Gill worked for 10 years in field operations at Fox News Channel. He also worked at Harpo Productions on The Oprah Winfrey Show and at several TV stations and production facilities. Outside of broadcasting, he is a former emergency medical technician and a pilot, Tegna said.

A U.S. District Court yesterday denied a stay of the FCC Media Bureau’s approval of the merger of Nexstar and Tegna TV station groups, while a California judge set a trial date for lawsuits filed by DirecTV and state AGs, which are challenging the transaction.

Since announced in August 2025, the merger has faced opposition from other media companies, public interest groups and state attorneys general who filed a lawsuit in March, attempting to block the merger.

The merger, valued at $6.2 billion (when it was announced), would create a behemoth in the local broadcasting industry with 265 full-power television stations in 44 states and the District of Columbia and 132 of the country’s 210 television DMAs.

The acquisition closed in March after approval from the Federal Communications Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice.

In its decision announced yesterday, the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. denied a request for stay of the FCC’s approval, noting that harms that could come to the Broadband Communications Association of Pennsylvania and other appellants were “either not irreparable or not certain.” The court noted that a separate preliminary injunction in the Eastern District of California already obligated Nexstar to hold Tegna assets separate, operate stations independently, and maintain existing MVPD relationships.

Meanwhile, a California judge set a trial date of July 9, 2027 in a case that combines appeals to nix the merger from DirecTV and by attorneys general from 12 states. The court also set for discovery to close April 15, 2027 and the final pre-trial conference and hearing for June 23, 2027.

In a tweet on X yesterday, Nexstar said it “looks forward” to having its day in court to defend the deal.

MCLEAN, Va.—As America marks its historic 250th birthday, Tegna has announced that it will culminate its year-long, cross-platform storytelling initiative “America’s 250: Red, White & YOU” with a one hour special on June 29.

The special will be hosted by Lesli Foster and Lorenzo Hall from Tegna’s WUSA station in Washington, D.C. It will be broadcast and streamed across all Tegna stations beginning June 29.

“Our journalists are uniquely positioned to tell the stories that together create a powerful portrait of who we are as Americans,” said Raquel Amparo, senior vice president of content at Tegna. “`America’s 250: Red, White & YOU’ is a reminder that local journalism creates a shared national experience connecting communities across the country.”

Throughout the year-long initiative, Tegna’s local news teams have shined a light on the neighbors who shape our communities—from passionate educators and artists to dedicated volunteers, veterans and entrepreneurs.

The one-hour special will air during the week of June 29 on Tegna television stations and stream on their digital and Connected TV platforms. An encore presentation will be available in July. Check local listings for air dates and times.

McLEAN, Va.—Tegna has elevated four longtime executives to senior vice president, expanding their leadership roles in legal, content, human resources and finance.

Marc Sher was elevated to senior vice president and general counsel, overseeing all legal matters, including compliance, contracts, litigation, regulatory matters and risk management. Sher, who joined Tegna in 2013, was most recently vice president, associate general counsel and secretary.

Raquel Amparo advanced to senior vice president of content, leading Tegna’s content strategy, creation and content partnerships across platforms. Amparo, an Emmy-winning journalist and Kneeland Fellow with more than 20 years of experience, had been vice president of content for Tegna’s Texas markets.

Melissa Jones was named senior vice president of human resources, tasked with directing Tegna’s people strategy, including talent acquisition, employee relations, compensation and benefits and organizational development. Jones joined Tegna in 2016 as VP of human resources and leads the HR business partner team across Tegna’s 64 stations in 51 markets.

And Pamela Long was promoted to senior vice president of finance, managing Tegna’s financial operations, including budgeting, forecasting, financial reporting and capital planning. Most recently VP of finance and operations, Long has been with Tegna since 2015.

“Each of these individuals has a proven record of measurable results built on experience, strong instincts and sound judgment,” CEO Patrick Paolini said. “As our leadership team continues to grow, these are the qualities that will shape Tegna’s future.”

Nexstar Media Group acquired Tegna in March, but the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California on April 17 issued a “Hold Separate Order” delaying the integration of the two companies as antitrust challenges work their way through the courts.

MCLEAN, Va.—Tegna CEO Patrick Paolini has announced that Kurt Rao has been named executive vice president and chief technology and digital products officer.

In this newly created role, Rao will lead the end-to-end strategy and execution for Tegna’s digital products and technology platforms, uniting product management, technology, engineering and operations to deliver local news and information across broadcast, streaming, mobile, and digital platforms.

“As audience behaviors continue to evolve, innovation must be at the center of everything we do,” said Paolini. “Uniting our technology, digital, and product organizations creates a stronger, more agile Tegna – one that can move faster, serve consumers more effectively, and position our company for long term growth in an increasingly competitive media landscape.”

Rao joined Tegna in 2018 as senior vice president and chief technology officer. In this role, he has been leading Tegna’s digital transformation, overseeing all facets of Tegna’s technology strategy, including the creation and implementation of proprietary AI tools. He has been responsible for next-generation technology solutions in the areas of content, media distribution and advertising insights, while also leading broadcast operations and information technology.

“I’m excited to take on this new role,” said Rao. “New capabilities and technologies are redefining how we deliver local news. By bringing our broadcast, digital, and product teams together, we can adopt these tools quickly and at scale to create better, more engaging experiences for our viewers and advertisers across every platform.”

Rao is the first officer named to Tegna's executive leadership team reporting to CEO Patrick Paolini.

In a new opinion piece published by Fortune, Nexstar founder, chairman and CEO Perry Sook vigorously defended the Nexstar/Tegna deal as “vital to the future of local television and local journalism,” and argued that local broadcast news operations could collapse and disappear, just as newspapers did, if the deal is not allowed to go through.

The OpEd piece comes at a time when Nexstar Tegna deal is bogged down in litigation after being approved by the Federal Communications Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice.

In April a judge in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California issued an injunction preventing Nexstar from merger operations with Tegna while the court considers an antitrust suit filed by state Attorneys General and DirecTV.

In the OpEd, Sook stressed that “outdated” broadcast stations ownership rules have crippled local broadcasters and have allowed big tech to dominate the media landscape, creating an “inflection point” similar to what the newspaper industry faced before its collapse.

“In an era of rampant misinformation and growing polarization, local journalists provide a critical counterweight — offering verified facts and a forum for civic engagement,” Sook said, adding that sustaining that mission “in today’s environment requires [the kind of] scale” the Nexstar/Tegna merger would create.

“This transaction is vital to the future of local television and local journalism. Without the ability to grow, local broadcasters will struggle to compete for audiences, attract advertising, and invest in the journalism that is vital to our communities.”

The alternative of refusing to change ownership rules would be “dire,” hurling local communities into a “a future where Americans rely on algorithm-driven feeds, viral content, and AI-generated summaries for information. A future where local voices are diminished or disappear altogether. A future where fewer institutions are dedicated to reporting facts, holding power to account, and fostering informed civic dialogue…This deal offers us all a chance to preserve real news options for future generations of Americans.”

The full piece is available here.

McLEAN, Va.—Tegna has named Patrick Paolini as the station group’s CEO, effective June 1.

He arrives at the broadcaster as a federal judge has issued a injunction in an antritrust lawsuit seeking to block Nexstar Media Group’s $6.2 billion acquisition of Tegna, which prevents the two station groups from merging their operations.

Paolini will be responsible for Tegna’s daily operations, revenue-generating business strategies, local journalism and production, and growth initiatives. He will report directly to Tegna’s Board of Directors.

Tegna said Paolini brings more than 30 years of local broadcast management experience and a distinguished track record in sales, marketing, and news operations to his new role, including management of large-market television stations.

He joins the company from Fox Television Stations, where he had been executive vice president of advertising sales since 2023.

At Fox, Paolini was responsible for ad sales strategy, initiatives and efforts across the station group. He had been senior vice president and general manager of WTTG-WDCA, the Fox-owned duopoly in Washington, D.C. Under his leadership, the stations branded as Fox 5 (WTTG) and Fox 5 Plus (WDCA) became No. 1 in the market with expanded local news and lifestyle programming throughout the broadcast day, Tegna said.

“Patrick is an ideal choice to lead Tegna,” the company’s board said in a statement. “He brings deep expertise in the broadcast television industry, major-market station management, and high-quality local news, along with a proven track record of driving revenue growth across linear and digital platforms. He is an innovative thinker and a proven leader with an established history of success. We look forward to Patrick’s leadership of this great company.”

Before WTTG-WDCA, Paolini was senior vice president of Fox Stations Advertising Sales. Earlier, he was vice president and general manager of Fox-owned WTXF Philadelphia and sales director at Fox’s New York City duopoly of WNYW New York and WWOR-TV Secaucus, N.J.

“I am honored to be joining Tegna,” Paolini said. “I have tremendous respect for the Tegna brand, for the outstanding local news delivered across its 64 local television stations and hundreds of digital platforms, and for the company’s dedicated employees and local journalists. Tegna will remain committed to providing the exceptional service our viewers, advertisers and communities expect, while continuing to innovate and expand across the platforms that define the modern media landscape. I am excited by the opportunities ahead.”

Nexstar Media Group has filed a wide-ranging appeal of a federal court ruling in California blocking it from integrating its operations with Tegna that argues the injunction is costing it “unrecoverable lost operational efficiencies exceeding tens of millions of dollars, a number growing every day.”

The filing with the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals also argued that the injunction issued in April by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California is much too broad and should be either reversed or limited in scope.

Nexstar had raised similar arguments about severe financial harm in April in response to an antitrust case filed against it by multiple state attorneys general and DirecTV in the Eastern District of California.

In that case, DirecTV and the AGs had asked the court for an injunction that would prevent Nexstar from going ahead with the merger even though the deal had been closed and the FCC and the Department of Justice had approved the merger.

In April, Judge Troy L. Nunley rejected Nexstar’s arguments and imposed an injunction blocking Nexstar from going ahead with its Tegna merger until the court decided the antitrust issues.

In its appeal to the 9th Circuit filed on May 20, Nexstar stressed that the “injunction is inflicting ongoing and severe harm on Nexstar and the assets of former Tegna. As Nexstar’s COO explained, because the injunction requires the companies to ‘maintain artificial operational separation despite common ownership,’ they are unable to execute fully ‘key business functions such as advertising sales, management, local news production, distribution and business strategy.’ That ‘reduce[s] operational efficiency and limit[s] Nexstar’s (and a separate Tegna’s) ability to compete effectively.‘ Nexstar has already suffered unrecoverable lost operational efficiencies exceeding tens of millions of dollars, a number growing every day.”

Nexstar also complained that the injunction is preventing it from “implementing technological improvements for former Tegna stations” that could make the stations more competitive against streaming and digital platforms.

“For instance, Nexstar will be delayed in implementing the ATSC 3.0 standard, which provides for a more efficient use of spectrum,” the appeal stated. “That standard would enable Nexstar to provide additional services to consumers and businesses, including additional content, interactive television, signal encryption, and data transmission services for former Tegna stations.”

The injunction also makes it impossible to undertake “critically needed cost reductions or indeed making any changes to its business that might be needed to survive” and it “risks the loss of key employees, including former Tegna employees who are uncertain about the company’s structure and future.”

“Since issuance of the injunction, the harms Nexstar described to the district court are now occurring,” the appeal argued. “All these harms injure not just Nexstar and the Tegna assets the district court sought to protect, but also the local news Nexstar creates and disseminates for free to the public. Nexstar thus seeks urgent relief from this Court.”

Nexstar also argued that a “district court lacks authority to issue injunctive relief broader than necessary to remedy the harms alleged by the specific plaintiffs before the court, The preliminary injunction here defies that bedrock principle. Plaintiffs challenge contract negotiations and local news production in a fraction of the country’s localities—yet the district court froze integration of virtually all of Defendants’ nationwide businesses, reaching stations, operations and corporate functions that have nothing to do with Plaintiffs’ alleged harms. This Court should narrow the preliminary injunction to match the law and what Plaintiffs actually allege.”

“Plaintiffs fell far short of their burden for the extraordinary relief of a preliminary injunction of any kind, let alone one this sweeping,” Nexstar added. “Defendants are eager for discovery and trial on the merits, where the full evidentiary record will defeat Plaintiffs’ claims. But Defendants cannot wait for trial to challenge the scope of the injunction. With each passing day, the injunction’s unnecessary breadth inflicts unrecoverable harm. Worse still, it degrades the very assets it purports to protect. This appeal seeks urgent, targeted relief: narrowing the injunction to match the harms Plaintiffs argued below.”

WASHINGTON—A coalition of public interest groups has filed a motion with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit urging the court to stay an order issued by the Media Bureau of Federal Communication Commission approving the Nexstar/Tegna merger and force the FCC to act on their petition to review the decision.

In a May 18 brief, Free Press, the Communications Workers of America, the United Church of Christ Media Justice Ministry, Inc., and Public Knowledge told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit that the FCC had taken actions designed to frustrate the court’s review of the agency’s merger-approval decision. The brief also explained how Nexstar has tried to move forward with its proposed takeover of Tegna without allowing time for judicial review of the transaction.

“The order approving the transfer of TEGNA’s licenses to Nexstar is plainly unlawful,” the appellants argued in the brief. “The FCC’s and Nexstar’s gambits cannot insulate this merger—which would far exceed the limits that Congress imposed—from judicial review.”

The appellants urge the court to make the full Commission review the Media Bureau’s order and facilitate the D.C. Circuit’s review of this unlawful FCC decision. In this case, lawyers at Democracy Forward are representing the appellants.

“The Court should issue a writ of mandamus directing the full Commission to act on Appellants' application for review and to stay the Media Bureau's order pending this Court's review,” the May 18 brief argued. “In the alternative, the Court should hold the petitions for mandamus in abeyance while the merger is enjoined and order the Commission to report on the status of the application for review every 30 days.”

The filing was made in two combined cases seeking to block the merger. One is an antitrust suit brought by Broadband Communications Association Of Pennsylvania, Newsmax and others; the second one was an emergency petition brought by Free Press and other groups asking the court to force the FCC to act on their motion to reconsider the merger approval.

The FCC opposed the petition and the court subsequently denied motions for an emergency stay of the merger, in part because a federal court in California has issued a preliminary injunction halting the merger as it considers a separate antitrust lawsuit filed by various states and DirecTV.

Opponents argues that If allowed to proceed, the merger would let Nexstar own or operate 265 full-power television stations reaching more than 80 percent of U.S. television households. This is more than double the 39 percent national ownership limit that Congress set. In many markets, Nexstar would control half or more of all commercial stations that air English-language news, further limiting options in already concentrated markets.

“The FCC’s politically motivated approval of the Nexstar-Tegna merger makes a mockery of the rules Congress created to prevent broadcast-television monopolies,” said Matt Wood, Free Press’ vice president of policy and general counsel, in a statement. “The most offensive trick in FCC Chairman Brendan Carr’s arsenal is the claim that FCC underlings can bless a transaction and let the merger proponents close the deal — yet somehow that decision isn’t final for purposes of appellate-court review. As our pleadings in this case make clear, Trump’s FCC chairman celebrates this decision he ordered, yet still has the gall to go to court and say the decision isn’t final enough for appeal.”

“The harms will be immense if a broadcast giant like Nexstar is allowed to control even more local-news media,” he added. “Congress rightly made broadcast TV-station consolidation of this scale illegal. That’s why we’ve asked the D.C. Circuit to stop this unlawful merger, and to reject Brendan Carr’s scheme to let the deal go ahead while shielding it from court review. And it’s why we’re committed to fighting the ongoing takeover of U.S. media by interests that are beholden to an authoritarian president — and care little about serving the needs of a diverse democracy.”

In its filing with the court, the FCC has said the full Commission will vote on the merger, which the Media Bureau found to be “in the public interest” sometime this year but declined to offer a specific date or time frame.

Nexstar Media Group reported record revenue in the first quarter, up 13.1% year over year, as executives outlined plans to combat antitrust lawsuits that are seeking to block the company’s $6.2 billion acquisition of Tegna, insisting they would complete the merger.

In its earnings report, Nexstar reported net revenue of $1.396 billion in Q1 2026, up 13.1% from the $1.234 billion reported a year earlier as net income spiked by 64.9% YoY to $160 million in Q1. Advertising was strong, up 19.1% YoY to $548 million, while distribution revenue increased by 9.8% YoY to $847 million.

Lee Gliha, executive vice president and chief financial officer, said the company was seeing a “a little bit of a weaker advertising environment in the second quarter than we did see in the first quarter.”

“What I tend to look at is I look at our categories and I look at which ones are increasing versus decreasing on a quarter-to-quarter basis,” Gliha added. “And last quarter, it was about 50-50. And this quarter, it's about 2/3 decreasing and 1/3 increasing. So I think it's just kind of a general overall weakness.”

Perry Sook, founder, chairman and CEO of Nexstar, said that “our acquisition of Tegna represents an important step in solidifying our future” and cautioned analysts “against attempting to draw legal conclusions at this stage.”

“We are confident in our arguments expressed in detail in the FCC's order approving the transaction that a stronger, more financially resilient and local broadcast industry is in the public's best interest,” Sook said. “We believe this is a fight worth having for us, for our industry and for the future of local journalism.”

“This transaction represents an opportunity to further our long-standing commitment to serving the communities of all sizes with high-quality free over-the-air programming, fact-based journalism and innovative digital and marketing solutions for both our viewers and our advertising partners,” he added. “We're focused on presenting the strongest possible legal arguments to the court, and to that end, we've engaged Beth Wilkinson at Wilkinson Stekloff, to lead our trial and appellate efforts, supplementing our former antitrust council at Morrison Forrester. Beth is one of the nation's most highly regarded trial lawyers having recently led the defense team that secured a victory for the NFL and its 32 member teams and a major antitrust class action suit challenging the Sunday Ticket distribution and related media agreements.”

“With our expanded legal team in place, we move forward now with complete confidence in the merits of our case and our ability to bring this process to a successful conclusion,” he explained. “As far as next steps are concerned, there are multiple legal proceedings underway. First, we filed our notice of appeal of the preliminary injunction before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Second, the trial in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California. And finally, there is also a separate challenge to the FCC's approval of the transaction pending before the D.C. Circuit Court. The court has already denied a request for an emergency stay finding that it lacks jurisdiction at this stage. Both we and the FCC have been directed to file responses to the petition by May 11.”

“While we don't have control over the various courts’ timelines, in the meantime, in compliance with the court order, Nexstar and Tegna are operating separately and we are proud of both teams’ continued focus on execution and their local community commitments,” he said.

In response to a question about why the FCC didn’t eliminate the ownership cap first and then approve the Nexstar/Tegna deal, Sook stressed that “the Tegna acquisition was approved. We do own the assets. I want to start there, and we feel that went through a fulsome approval process at both the FCC and the DOJ…I don't presuppose to be in the mind of chairman [Carr], but if you go back and look at public statements that he's made, since he was a commissioner, whether his party was in power or out of powe, he has said these rules are antiquated relic of the past and they need to go.

“I believe to this day, and I don't rule out that he will start a proceeding perhaps in this quarter or the next quarter would be a rulemaking to eliminate the national ownership cap,” Sook added. “I think that Chairman Carr is totally aware of market realities why he's taking the actions that he has taken, and so I think we are still on a path to regulatory deregulation and we are very thankful that we were able to make a persuasive case to qualify for a waiver during dependency of those proceedings.”

But Sook cautioned that “it's not just as simple as putting out a press release and saying, there was a change. There's a lot of legal work that has to go into that, a lot of wordsmithing, a lot of consultation with advisers. So I don't—I would not suppose or presume that those actions are off track. It's just—there's obviously a lot going on, a lot of M&A in addition to ours, that is under consideration at the FCC and the DOJ. And so I just think it's—I think these things are moving through the pipeline, but I would not presume that they have stopped or will not move through the pipeline ultimately.”

Nexstar President and Chief Operating Officer Michael Biard added that he didn't think changing the ownership rules prior to approving the Nexstar-Tegna deal would have stopped opponents from filing suits to block the deal.

"I don't think if you look at the claims that have been made in the litigation that the order with respect to the cap would change anything," he said. "The claims being made by the plaintiffs essentially are outside of the FCC purview. They come from an antitrust perspective, which is really a different analysis mile than the FCC. I think the FCC could have yielded a waiver, a complete elimination of the rules in gold and served it up on a platter, and the plaintiff still would have found reason to complain in this case."

The Federal Communications Commission is urging the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to dismiss appeals filed in consolidated antitrust cases seeking to block the agency’s previously issued ruling approving the Nexstar/Tegna merger.

The motions appealing the FCC's approval were filed in the court by several broadband associations, DirecTV and Newsmax. Since then, in late April, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit denied an emergency motion to stay the $6.2 billion Nexstar/Tegna merger.

In a May 5 filing the FCC argued that “under binding Circuit precedent, this Court lacks jurisdiction to review an order issued by the Commission’s staff. The Court should therefore dismiss these appeals.”

In its arguments, the FCC noted that its Media Bureau, “not the Commission, has acted. And the Commission has not denied—constructively or otherwise—the recently filed application for review.

In all events, appellants’ arguments in support of jurisdiction cannot overcome the plain text of 47 U.S.C. § 155(c)(7). The second sentence of that provision states: `The time … within which an appeal must be taken under [47 U.S.C. § 402(b)] shall be computed from the date upon which public notice is given of orders disposing of all applications for review filed in any case.’”

“Thus, Congress made clear that the filing window for appeals under section 402(b)—i.e., the timeframe `within which an appeal must be taken’—does not open until the FCC has acted on all pending applications for review of staff decisions. This confirms what the Court previously concluded: `Congress did not intend that the court review a staff decision that has not been adopted by the Commission itself.’”

As a result, “This Court lacks jurisdiction to review orders issued by the FCC’s staff, including the Media Bureau’s order in this case,” the FCC concluded. “Accordingly, the Court should grant this motion and dismiss these appeals.”

The merger has also been challenged in Federal Court in California, where the court has issued a preliminary injunction preventing Nexstar from going ahead with the merger.

Five more attorneys general, including two Republicans, have joined the antitrust lawsuit seeking to block the $6.2 billion dollar merger of Nexstar Media Group and Tegna, expanding the plaintiffs to a total of 13 states.

The AGs also filed an amended complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California.

The deal was approved by the Federal Communications Commission and Justice Department, but it is on hold after a federal judge granted a preliminary injunction halting the transaction while litigation proceeds.

“Antitrust enforcement is not political—it’s about protecting working families and helping ensure the benefits of a vibrant economy are for everyone, not just well-connected corporations,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta said in announciing the additional plaintiffs. “Today, five additional states join us in our challenge of the Nexstar/Tegna merger, now making this lawsuit a bipartisan effort.

“This is not controversial stuff—this merger is illegal and will give Nexstar and Tegna the ability to control and raise prices, fire journalists and dominate the media landscape,” Bonta continued. “State attorneys general nationwide understand just how important robust antitrust enforcement is to American life, and what a rotten deal this is for consumers, for workers, for affordability and for our local news. We welcome our sister states into the fray and look forward to fighting alongside them.”

Following the filing of the original complaint by eight AGs, all Democrats, on March 18, a judge in the Eastern District of California granted a preliminary injunction halting the merger.

That injunction followed a temporary restraining order granted in a challenge brought by DirecTV. The court has consolidated the states’ case with DirecTV’s related case. Defendants appealed the preliminary injunction to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, and Nexstar’s opening brief is due May 20.

In filing the amended complaint, the state coalition now includes the attorneys general of Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Vermont and Virginia.

In response, Nexstar issued a statement: “By aligning with private equity-backed DirecTV, these misguided attorneys general are strangling local journalism—the most trusted source of independent, fact-based news available to Americans. The AGs, none of whom has a track record of advocating for local media, would do well to understand the industry they purport to protect. They should also recognize the binding commitments Nexstar has made to increase the amount of local news coverage in many markets, including today's settlement with the Ohio Attorney General. And they should be far more wary of the real drivers of the decline of local news: the unchecked rise of Big Tech platforms, the spread of misinformation on social media, and the economic pressures that have already led to widespread newsroom closures. Tellingly, none of them appeared on local broadcast news to discuss this issue, but their social media posts were immediate.

“In today’s media landscape, multibillion-dollar technology companies compete directly with local broadcasters while facing none of the same ownership, reach, or size constraints, putting untenable pressure on the economic model that supports local news,” the statement continued. “The alternative to this deal is not more independently owned outlets—it’s the demise of your local broadcast station.”

WASHINGTON—The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has denied an emergency motion to stay the $6.2 billion Nexstar/Tegna merger that was filed in the court by several broadband associations, DirecTV and Newsmax after the Federal Communications Commission approved the deal.

In a April 28 order, the court noted that a preliminary injunction preventing Nexstar and Tegna from going ahead with the deal and integrating their operations had already been entered by the United States District Court for the Eastern District of California.

“Appellants’ mandamus petitions request a stay of the Media Bureau Order under the All Writs Act, 28 U.S.C. § 1651,” the order said. “For this court to grant such a stay, appellants must show, inter alia, `irreparable harm in the absence of a stay.’”

However, “appellants’ showing of irreparable harm appears to be diminished by the preliminary injunction,” in California, the court noted.

In addition, “appellants have not satisfied the stringent requirements for a stay pending appeal. Specifically, appellants have not shown this court is likely to have jurisdiction under 47 U.S.C. § 402(b) to review the March 19, 2026 order of the Federal Communications Commission’s Media Bureau. An application for review of the Media Bureau Order is currently pending before the Federal Communications Commission. And an appeal of the Media Bureau Order filed in this court before the Commission has resolved the application for review `is subject to dismissal as incurably premature.’"

In response to a preliminary injunction prohibiting Nexstar from carrying out its $6.2 billion acquisition of Tegna, Nexstar has announced that it will appeal the ruling by a federal judge to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

The ruling could delay the merger for at least some weeks, if not months, until the Ninth Circuit rules and have a chilling impact on dealmaking in the broadcast station sector, which has been embarking on another wave of consolidation.

As previously reported, a temporary restraining order (TRO) halting the merger between Nexstar and Tegna was issued in late March by U.S. District Judge Troy L. Nunley in California in the U.S. District Court Eastern District Of California.

He is presiding over an anti-trust case brought by DirecTV and eight state Attorneys General seeking to block the deal, which has been approved by the Department of Justice and the Federal communications Commission.

Last week Nunley extended the TRO by one week and on April 18 issued a preliminary injunction that will take effect on April 21.

Nexstar responded by saying “This transaction closed more than four weeks ago following receipt of all required regulatory approvals from the Federal Communications Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice. Nexstar Media Group now owns TEGNA and has taken steps consistent with the Court order that has been in effect…This pro competitive transaction will make local stations stronger and support continued investment in local journalism and fact-based news. We will appeal today’s decision and look forward to presenting our case on its merits before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.”

California Attorney General Rob Bonta, who is one of eight AGs involved in the case said "my office and attorneys general nationwide have secured a preliminary injunction in our lawsuit opposing the illegal and U.S. DOJ-approved merger of Nexstar/Tegna — an order that demands the broadcasting titans stop merging while our case proceeds. This is a critical win in our case,” “This merger is illegal, plain and simple. The federal government may have thrown in the towel, but we’ll keep fighting for consumers, for workers, for affordability, and for our local news.”

FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez applauded the ruling and criticized the regulator's hurried approval process.

“This is an important step toward ensuring that decisions of this magnitude are made with consumers in mind, not billion-dollar companies cutting backroom deals out of public view,” she posted on X. “I welcome the court’s decision to pause this transaction and bring much-needed scrutiny to a deeply flawed approval process."

It isn't immediately clear how long an appeal might take. If that appeal fails the ruling could delay implementation of the merger until 2027 when a jury trial would be held.

While the litigation continues, some analysts have argued that the ruling could "ice" broadcast M&A.

The court ruling is available here.

SACRAMENTO–A federal judge has issued an order extending for one week a temporary restraining order (TRO) preventing Nexstar and Tegna from integrating their operations as he continues to consider whether or not to grant a preliminary injunction in an antitrust case seeking to block the $6.2 billion merger.

As previously reported, a temporary restraining order (TRO) halting the merger between Nexstar and Tegna was issued in late March by U.S. District Judge Troy L. Nunley in California in the U.S. District Court Eastern District Of California.

The ruling blocks the two companies from proceeding with integration of their operations until the court rules on whether or not to issue a preliminary injunction in an antitrust case filed by DirecTV and Attorneys General in eight states.

The lawsuit seeks to block the deal that was approved by the Federal Communications Commission and the Department of Justice. The court heard arguments on the issue from both sides during a hearing on April 7 that was attended by Nexstar chairman and CEO Perry Sook.

While the April 10 order continues to limit Nexstar’s ability to integrate its operations with Tegna, the judge softened a number of important provisions in the original TRO.

In its response to the TRO, Nexstar opposed the TRO suggested a number of changes needed to be made if the judge planned to keep it in place.

The new order allows Nexstar to undertake ordinary course cash management, ordinary-course intercompany transfers, and ordinary-course debt service and repayment activities necessary to comply with Nexstar’s financing obligations.

It also allows Nexstar to take reasonable actions necessary to maintain Tegna’s day-to-day operations and allows Nexstar to perform all obligations required under its debt instruments, SEC reporting requirements, or refinancing transactions.

In addition it allows Nexstar to require that management of Tegna adhere to the interim operating covenants set forth in the Merger Agreement and allows Nexstar to require that management of Tegna adhere to the interim operating covenants set forth in the Merger Agreement.

SACRAMENTO—Following a hearing in Federal Court on April 7 on whether Nexstar can continue go forward with its $6.2 billion deal to acquire Tegna, LightShed Partners financial analyst Richard Greenfield has issued a note to investors arguing that he expects California District Court Judge Troy Nunley to grant a preliminary injunction halting the deal and that the ruling could have a major impact on dealmaking in the broadcast station sector.

As previously reported, a temporary restraining order (TRO) halting the merger between Nexstar and Tegna was issued by U.S. District Judge Troy L. Nunley in California in the U.S. District Court Eastern District Of California. The ruling blocks the two companies from proceeding with integration of their operations until the court rules on whether or not to issue a preliminary injunction in an antitrust case filed by DirecTV that seeks to block the deal. The Federal Communications Commission and the Department of Justice had earlier approved the deal.

The court heard arguments from both sides during a hearing on April 7 that was attended by Nexstar chairman and CEO Perry Sook.

At the end of the hearing Judge Nunley indicated that he would release a full ruling by Friday, April 10. Following the hearing, several published accounts (available here, here and here) indicated Judge Nunley seemed likely to issue the preliminary injunction based on his reaction to the arguments.

“Given the harshness of Nunley’s March 28th Temporary Restraining Order (link), we believe the most likely outcome is a preliminary injunction barring further integration,” Greenfield wrote in a note to investors. “What will be most interesting is whether Nunley acknowledges the challenges highlighted by Nexstar in their response to the TRO or maintains the same strict `keep separate’ order for a transaction that has already closed.”

“If the Nexstar case goes to trial, the best case is likely a mid-to-late Q4 hearing, with a decision in early 2027 and an appeal process that could eat up most of 2027,” he added.

“Remember, with the broadcast ownership cap effectively waived by the FCC to clear a path for consolidation, the Nexstar/Tegna merger was expected to drive a wave of consolidation over the next couple of years, including Nexstar and its peers,” he concluded. “We suspect this litigation could chill near term M&A across the broadcast sector, reducing the odds of a near-term settlement.”

The deal also faces ongoing litigation from Newsmax Media and several pay TV groups who have filed a motion in United States Court Of Appeals for the District Of Columbia Circuit seeking to halt the deal.

Other parties have filed papers with the Federal Communications Commission asking it to reconsider its approval of the $6.2 billion deal.

SACRAMENTO—In response to a temporary restraining order (TRO) pausing the $6.2 billion Nexstar/Tegna merger, Nexstar’s lawyers have strongly pushed back against the court order, saying that aspects of the merger are “impossible to reverse” and that “the TRO creates immediate operational harm to Tegna and Nexstar, regulatory conflicts, and a governance vacuum.”

The TRO was issued by U.S. District Judge Troy L. Nunley in California in the U.S. District Court Eastern District Of California in an antitrust suit brought by DirecTV. The ruling temporarily blocks the two companies from proceeding with integration of their operations. The court has asked for further pleadings on the issue and plans to hold an in-person hearing on April 7.

Nexstar’s March 31 response stressed that “Defendants Nexstar Media Group, Inc. and TEGNA Inc. hereby notify the Court that Defendants cannot implement certain provisions of the TRO as written because of actions already completed at closing and legal obligations that cannot be reversed. The TRO creates immediate operational harm to Tegna and Nexstar, regulatory conflicts, and a governance vacuum…Upon closing, Nexstar and Tegna took many typical steps that may not have been apparent to the Court when it issued its TRO. It is particularly difficult to freeze integration that was already taking place, unlike a conventional hold-separate order. Complying with certain aspects of the TRO is impossible and could jeopardize Nexstar and the Tegna assets the Court seeks to preserve.”

After laying out a long more specific list of operational problems and harms what would be created by the TRO, Nexstar also proposed some changes to the TRO to mitigate some of the problems created by the order. Those include changed in the following areas:

1. Debt and Cash Management
2. Corporate Governance and Operational Control
3. Distribution Agreements and Retransmission
4. Corporate Governance Structure and Officer Authority:
5. Financing and Reporting Obligations
6. Management Authority and “Ordinary Course” Operations
7. Corporate Governance and Officer Authority
8. Employee Compensation and Workforce Decisions
9. Interim Operating Covenants

“Nexstar’s above proposals may allow Defendants to mitigate some of the irreparable harm occurring to the combined company, comply with the TRO, and protect Tegna station assets over the next several days,” the filing argued. “The proposals, however, do not fully address the harm and are not sustainable beyond the preliminary injunction hearing set for April 7, 2026. Additional proposals and clarifications may be required in the coming days to forestall further material harm associated with the TRO.”

SACRAMENTO—A temporary restraining order (TRO) halting the merger between Nexstar and Tegna has been issued by U.S. District Judge Troy L. Nunley in California in the U.S. District Court Eastern District Of California.

The ruling blocks the two companies from proceeding with integration of their operations until the court issues another ruling on a preliminary injunction in an antitrust case filed by DirecTV that seeks to block the deal.

The court has asked for further pleadings on the issue and plans to hold an in-person hearing on April 7.

The FCC approved the deal and Nexstar announced it had closed the $6.2 billion transaction but the merger continues to be challenged in the court.

The March 27 ruling was in response to an antitrust suit brought by DirecTV in the Eastern District of California, the same court where where eight states have filed a separate antitrust lawsuit seeking to block the deal. Opponents of the deal have also filed lawsuits in Federal Court in U.S. Court of Appeals for the District Of Columbia Circuit.

In the ruling, Nunley noted that the deal will allow Nexstar to increase retransmission fees, which will give it more leverage to “threaten and impose blackouts…That threat leaves distributors with two bad options: acquiesce to Nexstar’s higher fees or lose access to these stations, thereby blocking the MVPD’s subscribers from accessing the content carried on the blacked-out stations and driving some consumers to switch to other distributors’ services where they can find that same content.”

“In short, by making blackouts even more painful for distributors like DirecTV, the merger will make it even harder for them to resist Nexstar’s demands for higher prices,” the judge wrote.

Nunley also rejected Nexstar’s arguments that a TRO would harm them. “First, Defendants do not adequately explain why a hold-separate order would prevent Nexstar or Tegna from expanding and increasing its investment in local news or prevent it from investing in local programming and local coverage. Second, congressional intent will not be undermined simply because the FCC has cleared this transaction. As Plaintiff correctly notes, the FCC was `not given the power to decided antitrust issues’ and FCC action `was not intended to prevent enforcement of the antitrust laws in federal courts.’ A court order to enforce antitrust laws, therefore, would not undermine congressional intent in regulation of the broadcast industry.”

“Based on the foregoing, the Court finds Plaintiff [DirecTV] sufficiently establishes irreparable harm in the absence of a TRO,” the court noted.

WASHINGTON—The Federal Communications Commission has filed a brief asking the U.S. Court Of Appeals for the District Of Columbia Circuit to reject a motion by opponents of the Nextstar/Tegna deal for an emergency stay that would halt any integration of the two station groups.

In the filing the agency argues that it had the authority to approve the deal by waiving ownership caps and that the deal was in the public interest because it would allow combined company `to expand their investments in local news, and compete more effectively in the modern media marketplace’.

As previously reported opponents have filed motions in federal courts in the D.C. Circuit and in California seeking to stop the merger following the FCC’s approval of the deal and the Nexstar announcement the deal had closed on March 19.

The agency made the filing in the U.S. Court Of Appeals For The District Of Columbia Circuit in response to motions for an emergency stay of the Nexstar/Tegna deal by Broadband Communications Association Of Pennsylvania, Newsmax, Free Press and others. The National Religious Broadcasters has also filed an Amicus Brief supporting the stay.

In the filing the FCC said that “an a detailed decision, the [FCC’s Media] Bureau reasonably found that in light of a transformed media landscape, as well as Nexstar’s commitments concerning divestiture of certain stations, increased local news programming, and maintenance of retransmission consent rates, the public interest benefits of the proposed transaction outweighed any potential public interest harms.”

The FCC urged the court to “deny appellants’ motions for a stay of the Order pending appeal. Appellants have not shown that they have a likelihood of success on their claims, nor have they satisfied the other stringent requirements for obtaining such extraordinary relief. The Bureau exercised its power to waive the Commission’s national television ownership cap, as well as the local ownership limits in certain markets, for `good cause shown.’...[A]pproval of Nexstar’s acquisition of Tegna will advance the Commission’s longstanding goals by allowing the combined entity’s stations to `continue and in fact expand their investments in local news,’ `compete more effectively in the modern media marketplace,’ and `counteract the growing imbalance of power between those local broadcast TV stations … and the powerful Big Four national programmers.’ Because approval of the transaction will result in these significant public benefits, the Bureau justifiably concluded that it would serve `the public interest, convenience, and necessity.’

The full FCC brief can be found here.

WASHINGTON—During his monthly press conference, Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr reiterated his controversial plans to enforce public interest rules on broadcasters who show "news bias" while describing the agency’s decision to approve the Nexstar/Tegna deal as being part of a larger policy to create a “healthy, thriving local broadcast TV market.“

Carr also provided new details about an ongoing enforcement action against Disney relating to a violation of “equal time” rules.

Since becoming FCC chair in 2025, Carr has said the agency was investigating various Disney properties for a variety of alleged offences. Those include their DEI practices, "news bias" in ABC’s handling of a 2026 Presidential debate and potential equal time violations.

Earlier this year, the FCC Media Bureau under Carr issued guidance telling broadcast stations airing certain late night and daytime talk shows that they are required to give equal time to rival candidates if those shows air interviews with political candidates. This prompted a major controversy when Stephen Colbert said CBS refused to allow him to air an interview with Texas State Representative James Talarico, a Democrat running for the U.S. Senate in Texas on his late night show.

Subsequently the FCC said in early February it had opened an investigation into `The View’ on ABC, which aired an separate interview with Talarico.

During the March 26 press conference, Carr said that the equal time rules require that stations to file “an equal time notice” in their political file. This triggers a window during which other candidates can “seek out and obtain their comparable time and placement."

Carr added that “the Disney owned TV station…didn't make any filing indicating that there had been a legally qualified candidate for office” in their non-news programming. In contrast, “every single TV station other than the one owned by Disney that ran that program did, in fact, file a notice regarding the appearance by James Talarico," Carr added.

In response to what enforcement action the FCC has taken in the matter, Carr said “it's ongoing right now. So we have lots of enforcement tools that are available to the FCC. We have our version of subpoenas, which are letters of inquiry. At this point, I'll just say that. You know, we've taken some enforcement measures with respect to Disney and `The View’. So we're still in the midst of this enforcement proceeding. We've taken certain steps. We're going to be taking others here soon and [not] announced publicly on that, but it is an enforcement matter at this point.”

In terms of the FCC's approval of the Nexstar Tegna merger, Carr put the agency’s decision in the context of the ongoing problems of local journalism. If “you look at this massive, secular decline in reporters, and you look at the future of the broadcast TV industry, I think it's imperative as a national policy matter that we should want a healthy, thriving local broadcast TV market,” he said

In response to a question about whether the FCC was planning to overturn the ownership caps on broadcast stations, Carr said “I think we should give broadcasters, local TV stations in particular, a fighting chance in this new frothy media environment” but stressed that the agency hadn’t made a final decision.

He also hinted that approving waivers to the ownership cap in mergers on a case by case basis, as it did in the Nexstar/Tegna deal, might be an acceptable policy even if the ownership rules weren’t changed.

“This is a rule that the FCC has said over and over again, is a rule, and any rule can be waived when the waiver standard is met," he said. "And that's a case by case review in terms of application of the waiver standard.”

Strictly enforcing the rules without considering wavers “stops all transactions from being reviewed by the FCC, good transactions and bad transactions alike. So I think…being able to take a case by case look at transactions makes sense. Transactions that are in the public interest, we can let through and transactions that aren't, we can stop. Moving into that sort of a more refined approach is better.”

In a separate press conference, FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez, a Democrat, disputed Carr’s defense of the Nexstar/Tegna approval process with some of her strongest words to date.

“Last week's rushed closed door approval of the unlawful Nexstar/Tegna merger is just the latest example of what I call the billionaire bypass,” Gomez complained. If “you are a billionaire with business before a government agency and a perceived friend of the White House, your transaction will get fast track approval. We saw it with the Paramount Skydance transaction, where the FCC immediately approved the deal, after Skydance agreed to make CBS more friendly to this administration, and after CBS paid to settle [a Trump lawsuit]...We are seeing it play out again with the proposed Warner Brothers discovery and Paramount merger, and we saw it last week with a $6.2 billion deal that sailed through multiple levels of regulatory scrutiny in a single day.”

“[M]eanwhile smaller transactions from less connected companies filed months earlier are still waiting,” she said. “This is not a coincidence. It is a pattern, and it tells you exactly who this FCC is working for, and it is certainly not the vast majority of American consumers.”

Gomez also described the approval as “flatly illegal. Congress said the national broadcast ownership cap at 39% of American homes. It reaffirmed that limit three times over 20 years, most recent, recently in 2004 when it explicitly stripped the FCC of any authority to waive or modify it. The law is not ambiguous. The FCC cannot rewrite it. It cannot ignore it. Yet, that is exactly what the media Bureau did last week, under bureaucratic cover, with no open process and no public accountability.”

SACRAMENTO—Nexstar has vigorously responded to a motion by eight states seeking a temporary restraining order (TRO) to stop its $6.2 billion merger with Tegna by arguing that a TRO would “irreparably harm Nexstar.”

“A temporary restraining order (TRO) preventing integration would irreparably harm Nexstar and others, halt the benefits of expanded local programming for millions, disrupt a fully approved and closed deal, jeopardize Nexstar’s business by creating confusion in the market, and impose in losses while creating a direct conflict with a lawful FCC Order,” the motion argued. “The States cite to no court that has issued a TRO on a consummated deal where, as here, two expert federal agencies have approved it. The Court should deny this thirteenth-hour request.”

Nexstar made the filing in the United States District Court Eastern District Of California Sacramento Division where eight states filed the antitrust lawsuit shortly after the Federal Communications Commission approved the deal and Nexstar announced the deal had been closed.

The lawsuit is one of at least three cases in federal courts seeking to block the merger.

In the California filing, Nexstar focused on several other key arguments including: the plaintiffs cannot meet the high standard for a temporary restraining order; the plaintiffs will not suffer immediate and irreparable harm; plaintiffs are unlikely to succeed on the merits; and a temporary restraining order would harm the public interest because it would “create conflicts of law”, deprive public benefits to the community and undermine Congressional intent. The filing also argued that the plaintiffs unduly delayed seeking relief and that the plaintiffs must post a bond for a temporary restraining order.

In the filing, Nexstar was particularly critical of the states, noted that “[t]he Plaintiff States worked directly with the DOJ in its review of the transaction yet raised no substantive concerns with Defendants until filing their Complaint. Now the States ask this Court to upend—on an expedited basis without adequate review—the well-considered decisions of two expert agencies. The FCC concluded the transaction serves the public interest by enabling expanded local news and information.”

The motion also emphatically rebutted the contention made by the states in their antitrust lawsuit that “the future Nexstar could charge more to cable and satellite companies for a license to retransmit local television signals,” which in turn would raise the costs of video programming.

“The States seek an `extraordinary remedy’ reserved for rare situations involving imminent, irreparable harm,” Nexstar said. “The States cannot support their sweeping request of the Court with their vague, speculative allegations of possible future financial injury. No imminent, irreparable harm exists. The States’ main theory is that Nexstar will raise retransmission fees at some point in the future. But, as the States acknowledge, any change in retransmission fees for expiring agreements is barred until after November 30, 2026 for parties that accept that extension. That alone defeats any claim of imminence. The FCC Order maintains the status quo, and many other agreements not covered directly by the FCC Order will not expire for years.”

The filing also contended that “their second claim of harm, that the transaction will hurt local journalism, fares no better. Again, among other reasons, the FCC Order commits Nexstar to expand local journalism and programming, just as it has done after prior deals. The FCC has committed Nexstar to divest six stations, including in Colorado, Connecticut, and Virginia, to further allay such concerns. At a minimum, those three States should dismiss their claims to preserve judicial resources.”

Nexstar repeated arguments that existing ownership caps are obsolete in the current media landscape where they compete against giant tech companies and contended that the TRO would delay the public benefits of the merger, which would allow Nexstar to invest more money in local journalism.

In addition, the “TRO would `impose a significant burden on Nexstar,” the filing noted. “Nexstar will suffer irreparable operational, financial, and competitive harm if forced to hold Tegna separate. A hold-separate order would prevent Nexstar from effectuating plans designed to result in cost savings and efficiencies, including systems integration, policy standardization, and retention of key employees. A delay will also impede coordination on key business functions, such as advertising sales, pricing, inventory management, and contract negotiations. Lost operational efficiencies alone have been valued at approximately and cannot be recaptured. A hold-separate requirement would also create uncertainty regarding the company’s operations and strategic direction, impairing Nexstar’s ability to preserve and grow key relationships and compete effectively. That uncertainty also creates substantial risk of attrition among key personnel, especially high performers. That uncertainty carries additional financial consequences—financing for the deal was based on operational and revenue synergies that, if delayed, could materially degrade Nexstar’s standing in financial markets. Finally, a TRO would force Nexstar not to implement its commitments under the FCC Order, putting it at risk of violating the FCC Order.”

WASHINGTON—Although the Federal Communications Commission has approved the Nexstar deal to acquire Tegna and Nexstar quickly declared the $6.2 billion transaction closed on March 19, legal challenges to the deal continue to mount, with Newsmax Media and several pay TV groups filing a motion in United States Court Of Appeals for the District Of Columbia Circuit seeking to halt the deal.

The emergency motion for stay and injunction pending appeal was filed on March 21 by the Broadband Communications Association Of Pennsylvania, Broadband Communications Association Of Washington, Indiana Cable And Broadband Association, Mississippi Internet And Television, Tennessee Cable & Broadband Association, VCTA – Broadband Association Of Virginia and Newsmax Media Inc.,

As previously reported, eight states have separately filed an emergency motion in California seeking an injunction blocking the deal while the federal court considers their antitrust lawsuit filed last week.

In addition, Monday March 23, Free Press, the Communications Workers of America, the United Church of Christ Media Justice Ministry, Inc. and Public Knowledge filed an appeal of the Federal Communications Commission’s rushed approval of the largest broadcast television merger in U.S. history.

The challenge, like the motion by Newsmax and the pay TV groups was filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. It asks the court to stop the merger of Nexstar and Tegna before it proceeds and the companies combine all operations, and asks the court to set aside the FCC’s approval of the deal. The groups assert that the merger is unlawful, in contradiction of laws established by Congress and of FCC procedures, too.

Democracy Forward represents the coalition in the case. It filed a notice of appeal and motion on Monday.

“The whole point of these deals is not better news coverage, as these massive companies claim,” said Matt Wood, Free Press’ vice president of policy and general counsel. “They’re all about raising consumer prices while slashing the companies’ costs, which means firing reporters and centralizing the production of top-down, duplicative and watered-down news. We’re ready to challenge this unlawful deal before the courts and alongside the communities that Nexstar is supposed to be serving.”

The separate motion filed by Newsmax and pay TV group in the D.C. Circuit also complains that the FCC acted improperly in approving the deal and that Nexstar moved too quickly to close the deal.

“The merger `adversely affect[s]’ Appellants and consumers: By lifting regulatory restrictions on the first and third biggest broadcasters, the new company will upend the market for cable news and digital media and exert its newfound leverage to demand higher and higher fees from cable providers and other multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs) wishing to carry Nexstar/Tegna stations (which in turn means higher monthly TV bills for American consumers). Yet while Congress guaranteed adversely affected entities the right to judicial review, it will be exceedingly difficult as a practical matter to unwind the acquisition once Tegna fully dissolves into Nexstar. That fact is not lost on Nexstar and TEGNA—rather than slowing things down to facilitate review, they apparently worked hand-in-glove with the FCC to frustrate judicial review: The order approving the transaction was publicly released around 6:50 PM; by 7:05 PM, Nexstar publicly announced that the transaction had already closed.”

More specifically, the filing argues that its challenge to the FCC’s order is likely to succeed because the FCC’s “order is flawed from stem to stern. In the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2004, Congress prescribed a `39 percent national audience reach limitation, so a company with 80% national reach [that the combined Nexstar/Tegna group would have] should be a nonstarter. FCC regulations also prohibit one company from owning more than two stations in a single market—so a company owning 3 stations in scores of markets should also be a nonstarter. And even if the Commission somehow retained authority to suspend either requirement wholesale, the Commission has never done so—so allowing the subordinate Bureau to do so should be yet another nonstarter, because the Bureau expressly lacks authority over `novel questions of law, fact or policy.’”

“Under binding precedent from both this Court and the FCC, the least the Commission had to do was hold a hearing and put this transaction to a vote of the Commissioners,” the motion continued. “But that precedent went out the window after a social-media directive from President Trump to “GET THIS DEAL DONE!” The Media Bureau then dashed out an order approving the transaction in three-and-a-half months—roughly half the usual timeline—whistling past the Commission’s prior position that it lacked the authority to `decline to enforce” the 39% cap “against any person or entity.’”

“The remaining factors confirm the need for a stay,” the motion concluded “Notwithstanding the `serious, substantial’ legal questions that the Bureau purported to resolve, Nexstar and Tegna spirited their transaction across the finish-line in an attempt to avoid defending the Bureau’s `difficult and doubtful’ conclusions in court. Notwithstanding this gambit, substantial steps remain before full integration, and this Court should act promptly to enjoin them. Failing to do so would eviscerate Appellants’ right to review while hearkening the problems that Congress’ `39 percent national audience' reach limitation’ sought to prevent, concentrating control over high-value news, sports, and emergency programming in a single company and empowering that company to inflate prices while dictating what gets reported to 80% of households. And it would give future Commissioners (and Presidents) a roadmap to follow: Shunt politically-favored-but-legally-dubious mergers to the Bureau and give the parties a head-start to close before adversely affected entities can get into court. To protect its jurisdiction, to preserve Appellants’ statutory right to review, and to safeguard consumers, the Court should immediately stay the Bureau’s order and direct Nexstar and Tegna to hold separate and take no further steps to combine.”

SACRAMENTO, Calif.—Following the Federal Communications Commission's approval of the Nexstar/Tegna merger and Nexstar’s announcement that it had closed the $6.2 billion deal, eight states have filed a motion asking the United States District Court Eastern District Of California, Sacramento Division to issue a temporary restraining order to prevent the integration of the two companies until the Federal court rules on their previously filed antitrust lawsuit.

The motion was filed by the same eight states, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, and Virginia, who had filed a federal lawsuit contending that the deal would raise programming prices for consumers, increase blackouts over retransmission consent fees and reduce the diversity and quality of local news.

They are asking “for an order temporarily enjoining the nation’s largest broadcasting company, Nexstar Media Group, Inc. from integrating or commingling the assets and operations it has acquired from what was, yesterday, a substantial competitor, Tegna Inc., and requiring Nexstar to hold separate the acquired Tegna assets pending further proceedings.”

In the motion, the states complained about Nexstar’s decision to quickly close the deal following FCC approval “despite multiple pending lawsuits…[T]heir rush to consummate the Transaction raise the troubling specter that Defendants may be barreling forward with this transaction to frustrate effective judicial review. Plaintiff States seek emergency relief to prevent integration of Nexstar and Tegna and to preserve the Court’s ability to grant effective relief. If the requested relief is not granted, the harm to the public and to competition in the market for broadcast television licensing would commence immediately. The Transaction is set to create a broadcasting behemoth with control over an unprecedented share of broadcast television content, including local news and sports, from the nation’s most-watched `Big 4' stations (those affiliated with FOX, ABC, NBC or CBS). A post-merger Nexstar has more substantial power to raise prices for cable, satellite, and fiber-optic television consumers, and to control and degrade the quality and variety of broadcast television content.”

“Plaintiffs’ sought TRO [temporary retraining order] would not force Defendants to unwind the Transaction or divest assets on an emergency basis; it is instead narrowly tailored to keep the status quo and prevent Defendants from taking steps that would irreversibly alter competitive conditions and frustrate remedial abilities before the Court can rule on preliminary injunctive relief,” the motion concluded.

The full motion can be found here.

More on the original case can found here and the FCC approval of the deal here.

WASHINGTON—A coalition of groups who have opposed the $6.2 billion Nexstar/Tegna merger have filed an emergency petition and appeal with the Federal Communications Commission seeking to stay what they call “the agency’s unlawful March 19 decision” to approve the deal.

“To say that the merger will ‘adversely affect’ petitioners would be a massive understatement,” according to the filing, which was signed by associations representing pay TV companies, unions, public interest groups and groups representing broadband providers. “Everyone (including the applicants themselves) agrees that the new company will exert its newfound leverage to demand ever-higher fees ... which, in turn, will translate into higher prices for millions of subscribers. And the merger will further harm the public interest with imminent cuts to journalists and other workers employed by these stations across the country, and decreased competition and viewpoint diversity in news these stations produce.”

The emergency petition and application for review of the FCC order calls on the agency to stay its Nexstar decision pending a ruling on the application. The groups assert that the FCC’s Media Bureau issued its Nexstar decision without holding a hearing, “which is the absolute least it should have done given the multiple ‘substantial and material questions’ about whether this merger serves ‘the public interest,’” according to the petition.

Petitioners include Free Press, the Broadband Communications Association of Pennsylvania, the Broadband Communications Associations of Washington, DirecTV, Echostar Corporation, the Indiana Cable and Broadband Association, Mississippi Internet and Television, Newsmax Media, NABET — Communications Workers of America, Public Knowledge, the Tennessee Cable and Broadband Association, United Church of Christ Media Justice Ministry, and VCTA — Broadband Association of Virginia.

The deal also faces opposition in the courts, where eight states and DirecTV have filed lawsuits trying to block it for allegedly violating antitrust laws.

Nexstar controls more than 200 owned or partner television stations in 116 local U.S. markets. The combined entity would have 265 full-power television stations in 44 states and the District of Columbia, present in 132 of the country’s 210 television Designated Market Areas.

In a statement, Free Press vice president of policy and general counsel Matt Wood said that “the FCC’s unprecedented moves to grease the skids for this terrible merger are something we simply can’t let stand. Giant media conglomerates like Nexstar are bad for democracy writ large, and particularly harmful to the local communities these broadcasters are obligated to serve. That’s why Congress established a 39 percent national audience cap — to prevent one national company from controlling far too much publicly owned spectrum in cities and towns across America.”

“The FCC decision to green light this terrible deal would usher in an unprecedented concentration of the broadcast television market,” he added. “The new Nexstar would have vast power to raise costs for pay-TV distributors and their customers — even extorting higher fees from consumers when demand for access to news, information and entertainment content — like the NFL playoffs, NCAA Final Four, and election-related local news — is at its highest.”

More reaction to the deal, which was praised by the NAB and criticized by FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez, the agency’s lone Democrat, can be found here.

The petition is available here and the appeal hear.

WASHINGTON—On Thursday the FCC’s Media Bureau announced the approval of Nexstar’s acquisition of Tegna, a deal that has tested the limits of existing broadcast ownership rules.

The merger, valued at about $6.2 billion, will give Nexstar coverage of about 80% of U.S. households, controlling 265 stations across 44 states and Washington D.C., with Nexstar now owning major affiliates (ABC, CBS, NBC, and FOX) in 132 of the country’s 210 television markets. Such coverage gives Nexstar nearly double the 39% ownership limit typically allowed by the FCC.

In response to the approval, AGs in eight states filed to block the merger, claiming that it would increase costs for consumers and “consolidate newsrooms of previously separate Big 4 stations, degrading the content and quality of local news broadcasts.”

Since announced last August, just weeks after a federal appeals court vacated the FCC’s top four station ownership rule, the deal was perhaps the most brazen attempt by station groups to test FCC Chairman Carr’s attitude towards revising broadcast ownership rules. Broadcasters claim current rules are hampering their ability to compete with similar media operations owned by Big Tech. The FCC is currently in the public comment phase of considering new ownership rules as part of its 2022 Quadrennial Regulatory Review.

Carr—who has long advocated for such changes, applauded the court’s ruling last summer.

“For decades, the FCC’s approach to regulating the broadcast industry has failed to promote the public interest,” he said in August. “That has only made it harder for trusted and local sources of news and information to compete in today’s media environment. And that is why I dissented from the Biden-era FCC’s decision to retain a regulation that does not match marketplace realities. I am pleased to see that the court agrees and has vacated that regulation.”

Even more important was that the Trump administration approved of the deal, although it was based more on his dislike of “fake news,” than about ownership. Democrats in Congress lobbied against the merger, which also drew widespread media industry opposition from DirecTV, labor groups and even the right wing Newsmax cable channel.

To get to yes, Nexstar successfully obtained a waiver from the commission based on the company’s argument that the industry "needed more scale." Nexstar also made formal commitments to invest in local news and take steps to prevent the merger from leading to higher pay TV bills. In addition, Nexstar agreed to divest itself of the following TV stations:

• Little Rock, Arkansas (KNWA)
• New Orleans, Louisiana (WUPL)
• Indianapolis, Indiana (WTHR)
• Norfolk, Virginia (WAVY)
• New Haven, Connecticut (WCTX)
• Denver, Colorado (KTVD)

Perhaps trying to avoid a public protest that broke out during an FCC meeting last fall, the commission chose to approve the merger in a meeting that was closed to the public, which drew criticism from Anna Gomez, the lone Democrat on the commission, who opposed the merger.

“The FCC has once again chosen bureaucratic cover over public accountability. This merger was approved behind closed doors with no open process, no full Commission vote, and no transparency for the consumers and communities who will bear the consequences," Gomez said in a statement. "A transaction of this magnitude, which includes new and novel issues before the FCC, demands open deliberation before the full Commission, not a quiet sign-off meant to avoid public scrutiny. Given the increasingly alarming pace of reckless media consolidation, the American public deserves to know how and why this decision was made.

Although Gomez acknowledged the financial pressures local TV newsrooms are under, she said the Nexstar deal will not ameliorate such concerns.

"Across the country, newsrooms are being consolidated, reporters laid off, and editorial decisions made far from the communities broadcast stations are licensed to serve,:" she said. "The Nexstar/TEGNA merger will accelerate exactly that trend, concentrating broadcast power in fewer corporate hands, shrinking independent editorial voices, and prioritizing national business interests over local needs. Nexstar has already begun cutting newsrooms throughout the country, and as these billion-dollar companies grow even larger, their increased negotiating leverage will drive up fees that translate into higher monthly bills for those families who can least afford them. The consequences of this rubber stamp approval will be felt in living rooms and newsrooms across the country, resulting in fewer voices, less competition, and higher costs for consumers.”

As expected, the National Association of Broadcaster applauded the result.

“While NAB does not take a position on the merits of any individual transaction, today’s action by the FCC and DOJ to approve the Nexstar-Tegna merger is a meaningful sign that the Commission understands the urgent need for ownership reform,” NAB President Curtis LeGeyt said in a statement.

“We are grateful to Chairman Brendan Carr for his recognition that the national ownership cap is outdated and no longer reflects today’s media marketplace. This decision is an important acknowledgement that the media marketplace has changed and giving stations the ability to achieve greater scale is essential to sustaining trusted local journalism and emergency reporting. We look forward to continuing to work with the Commission as it modernizes its rules to ensure that broadcasters can continue to serve their local communities across the nation.”

EL SEGUNDO, Calif.—DirecTV has filed a federal antitrust lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California, Sacramento Division, alleging that the proposed merger between the broadcast station groups Nexstar Media and Tegna violates the federal antitrust laws and would significantly harm consumers.

The complaint asserts that the proposed merger—which combines the nation's largest and second-largest English-language broadcast station groups—represents a concentration of broadcast media that will drive up consumer costs, reduce local competition, shutter local newsrooms, and increase both the frequency and duration of blackouts from retransmission consent disputes.

DirecTV’s actions come on the heels of a multistate lawsuit filed in the same court by attorneys general from California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, and Virginia. More on that lawsuit can be found here.

Like the federal antitrust suit filed by the eight states, DirecTV pays particular attention on markets where Nexstar would own at least two, and sometimes three, of the most influential and widely watched local stations. The markets include more than 25 million TV homes in major cities like Austin, Buffalo, N.Y.; Charlotte, N.C.; Cleveland and Columbus, Ohio; Denver; Indianapolis; Memphis, Tenn.; New Orleans; Portland; San Diego; St. Louis; and Tampa, among others.

DirecTV alleges that owning two or more affiliate stations of major broadcasters in those markets would give the combined company more power to demand higher retransmission fees in negotiations with pay TV operators, which in turn would raise programming costs for consumers and lead to more widespread blackouts of programming. These blackouts would make it difficult for fans to watch local professional and college sports.

The suit also notes that a significant number of these markets are also state capitals, where reduced competition would limit the diversity of local news coverage.

As previously reported, DirecTV has filed evidence with the Federal Communications Commission claiming that wherever Nexstar already operates similar “duopolies,” it reduces alternate viewpoints and competition for stories by using one newsroom, one news director, one online news site, and spreads the editorial staff to create news content shared and frequently repeated across two station newscasts.

"DirecTV supports the action taken by the states and has determined it is necessary to join this effort to protect competition and consumers," said Michael Hartman, general counsel and chief external affairs officer at DirecTV. "We have consistently made clear that this merger is anti-competitive and not in the public interest and, if it goes forward, will trigger a wave of similar consolidation."

"The acquisition would give Nexstar control of 228 broadcast stations reaching 80% of television households in 132 local markets and increase concentration in dozens of local markets by more than 10 times the amount that is presumptively unlawful under the antitrust laws," the complaint states. "That enormous increase in market power will enable Nexstar to raise prices and reduce the amount, variety, and quality of local news without having to worry about losing business to competition."

The complaint also highlights that the merger is likely to exacerbate the already sharp rise in retransmission consent fees charged by local station groups, which have increased more than 5,000% over the past two decades—from approximately $214.6 million in 2006 to an estimated $11.9 billion in 2025. Retransmission consent fees are a large input cost for pay TV providers, which means the greater leverage and market power Nexstar will gain by buying its close rival Tegna will translate into price increases that end up on millions of Americans' monthly TV bills.

"By acquiring Tegna's competing stations, Nexstar will deprive distributors and consumers of the benefits of competition: lower prices and higher quality," the complaint further states. "Instead, Nexstar will be able to raise prices and reduce quality. DirecTV and its subscribers will end up paying more for less. The antitrust laws forbid acquisitions that substantially lessen competition, enabling acquirers to charge more while offering less."

Nexstar and Tegna have filed papers with the FCC that address many of the arguments made by the two lawsuits. They have consistently contended that the merger would strengthen their ability to compete against big tech companies that control much of the video market and would bolster their ability to invest in local news.

As previously reported, both President Trump and FCC Chair have backed the merger.

TV Tech has reached out to Nexstar for comment and will add those comments when they become available.

A coalition of eight attorneys general has filed a lawsuit to block the acquisition of Tegna Inc. by Nexstar Media Group, Inc., alleging that the deal creating a media giant governing 80% of U.S. TV homes would result in higher programming costs for consumers and hurt the quality of local news “with the elimination of independent local news and other content.”

The attorneys general of California, New York, Colorado, Illinois, Oregon, North Carolina, Connecticut, and Virginia filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California.

The lawsuit claims that the merger violates Section 7 of the Clayton Act, which holds that mergers that substantially lessen competition or tend to create a monopoly are illegal. If the Nexstar/Tegna merger is allowed to proceed, the eight attorneys general claim that local markets will immediately see a lessening of competition.

In a statement, California Attorney General Rob Bonta, who is part of the lawsuit said that “Today, my office has filed a lawsuit to block the proposed merger of broadcasting giants Nexstar and Tegna. This merger would cause incredibly high levels of concentration in local TV markets and is expected to raise cable and satellite prices across the country, causing irreparable harm to local news and consumers who rely on their reporting as a critical source of information. If approved, this multibillion-dollar deal would combine the nation’s largest and third-largest television-station conglomerates, creating a behemoth covering 80% of U.S. television households. This merger is illegal, plain and simple, running contrary to federal antitrust laws that protect consumers. When broadcast media is owned by a handful of companies, we get fewer voices, less competition, and communities lose the critical check on power that local journalism delivers.”

The lawsuit also alleges that the deal would create the largest broadcast station group in the United States, putting more broadcast programming in the hands of fewer people, removing control from the communities they report to, cutting local jobs, and significantly impacting the delivery of news and other media content to Americans nationwide.

A major argument in the complaint is that the combined station group would own two or more of the Big Four (ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC) stations in many markets. That would give the company more market power to demand higher retransmission consent fees, which in turn would raise the price of pay TV services.

In addition, owning multiple local stations would allow the company to combine news operations in local markets, which would allegedly reduce quality, the diversity of local voices. The complaint cited reports detailing layoff in Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York.

“Unless enjoined, the merger likely would have the following effects in the market for the Licensing of Big 4 Retransmission Consent across the nation, among others: A). competition in the Licensing of Big 4 Television Retransmission Consent in each of the Big 4 Overlap DMAs likely would be substantially lessened, raising prices and harming quality, such as with the elimination of independent local news and other content; B). competition between Nexstar and Tegna in the Licensing of Big 4 Television Retransmission Consent in each of the Big 4 Overlap DMAs would be eliminated; and C). the fees charged to MVPDs for the…Licensing of Big 4 Television Retransmission Consent in each of the Big 4 Overlap DMAs, as well as in DMAs beyond the Big 4 Overlap DMAs, would increase.”

Nexstar and Tegna have made filings with the FCC that address many of these arguments. They have consistently contended that the merger would strengthen their ability to compete against big tech companies that control much of the video market and would bolster their ability to invest in local news.

As previously reported, both President Trump and FCC Chair have backed the merger.

In response to the lawsuit, FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez reiterated her call for this merger review to not be approved under bureaucratic cover but through an open and transparent process that involves a vote of the full Commission with this post on X:

TV Tech has reached out to Nexstar for comment.

A copy of the lawsuit is available here.

WASHINGTON—While broadcasters have made the elimination of ownership caps a major policy priority for decades, a new report from OpenSecrets documents how those efforts went into overdrive in 2025, as the Federal Communications Commission signaled it might be willing to change the rules and station groups announced a number of major deals that would require regulatory changes.

In 2025, Nexstar Media Group spent $3.2 million lobbying the FCC in 2025, roughly 10 times more than it did every year from 2018 to 2023, when its lobbying activity remained steady, according to OpenSecrets.

Meanwhile, Sinclair Broadcast Group, the second largest station owner, last year spent $800,000, up from $770,000 in 2024 and about four times its 2023 federal lobbying total.

As previously reported, broadcasters have long argued that the current rules that limit the reach of station groups to no more than 39% of all TV homes in the U.S., put them at a severe competitive disadvantage to big tech companies and streaming services who have captured a large share of the TV ad and subscription market in the last 15 years. Our full coverage of that issue can be found here and here along with our FCC coverage here.

The issue has become even more important as Nexstar announced in 2025 a $6.2 billion deal to acquire Tegna, Sinclair began talks about acquiring E.W. Scripps and station groups like Scripps and Gray announced deals and station swaps that would require changes to the rules.

The study also noted that “to help sway the FCC, Congress and the White House, Nexstar hired lobbyist Jeff Miller, who served as finance chair on President Donald Trump’s second inaugural committee, at the start of 2025. Miller heads Miller Strategies, one of the firms that have benefited most from their close connection with the Trump administration. Nexstar paid the firm $510,000 over the course of the year, although most of its lobbying was handled by the company’s in-house team. Tegna reported its first year of lobbying in 2025, spending $550,000 exclusively on Miller Strategies. Combined, the lobbying firm raked in over a million dollars from just the potential Nexstar-Tegna merger.”

The report also highlights the ongoing debate over whether the FCC has authority to change the rules, as the NAB and broadcasters have argued, or whether it would require Congress to pass new legislation, as opponents of changes to the ownership caps have argued.

The full report is available here.

SEATTLE—Tegna Inc. and the Seattle Kraken announced a multi-year media rights deal, continuing a regional sports agreement that makes Kraken games available for free via over-the-air broadcasts on local Tegna stations KING5 and KONG.

This extension comes two years after the launch of the Kraken Hockey Network, which has made games widely accessible on Tegna and partner stations and on Prime Video.

Since the debut of Kraken Hockey Network, the team’s partnership with Tegna has driven significant audience growth, with total viewership tripling across the Kraken’s five-state territory in the first season. In addition to Seattle, the Kraken’s agreement with Tegna ensures games are available for free over-the-air across the four largest markets in the Kraken territory, reaching more than four million households.

“Since we launched the Kraken Hockey Network on Tegna and Prime Video, viewership has increased exponentially,” said Jeff Webster, chief commercial officer at the Seattle Kraken. “This extended partnership with Tegna ensures fans throughout our territory will continue to enjoy an exceptional broadcast at no cost, furthering our commitment to making Kraken hockey accessible to all.”

All non-nationally televised games will be broadcast on KONG and Prime Video, with up to 20 games simulcast on Tegna’s NBC affiliate, KING 5, giving fans in the Seattle market multiple free and easy ways to watch.

Fans outside of Seattle also will be able to watch games on Tegna stations KREM-KSKN in Spokane and KGW in Portland.

Tegna said it is also working with additional broadcast companies to expand free over-the-air broadcast access to all available television markets in Washington, Oregon and Alaska. KING 5, Tegna, and the Kraken will lead advertising and sponsorship sales for all local games.

“We are thrilled to extend our outstanding partnership with the Seattle Kraken,” said Brad Ramsey, senior vice president and head of sport rights at Tegna. “We have done exactly what we set out to do, giving more fans, in more homes, access to more games than ever before. We are more committed than ever to serving local fans with the content they care most about, and our advertising partners with solutions that help them move the needle.”

John Forslund, JT Brown, Eddie Olczyk, Alison Lukan, Piper Shaw and Bret Festerling will continue broadcasting the games throughout the season. In addition to games, the weekly show, Kraken Home Ice, will remain a key part of the content lineup, bringing fans closer to the players and behind the scenes of what makes the Kraken tick.

Information on the Kraken’s broadcast availability in all markets can be found on: https://www.nhl.com/kraken/fans/broadcast-schedule.

WASHINGTON—The proposed deal for Nexstar to acquire Tegna got a major boost on social media in recent days when President Trump weighed in with his support for the deal.

“We need more competition against THE ENEMY, the Fake News National TV Networks,” Trump posted on his Truth Social site. “Letting Good Deals get done like Nexstar - Tegna will help knock out the Fake News because there will be more competition, and at a higher and more sophisticated level. Those that are opposed don’t fully understand how good the concept of this Deal is for them, but they will in the future. GET THAT DEAL DONE! PRESIDENT DJT”

In response, Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr, who has repeatedly noted that he would like to strengthen local broadcasters, offered perhaps his clearest intention to date of his willingness to get rid of the 39% ownership cap.

Carr postedon X that “President Trump is exactly right. The national networks like Comcast & Disney have amassed too much power. For years, they’ve been pushing this Hollywood & New York programming all over the country with no real checks. Let’s get it done and bring real competition to them.”

Trump's willingness to back the deal and by implication support changes in station ownership rules marks a reversal from his previous position attacking efforts to lift the 39% ownership cap as something that would help "radical left networks."

In a social media post on Nov. 23, 2025 Trump linked to a Newsmax article that said lifting FCC station ownership caps would be a “disaster for conservatives.” In the earlier post, Trump also complained that if proposals to lift the cap “would allow the Radical Left Networks to ‘enlarge,’ I would not be happy…If anything make them SMALLER!”

PHOENIX—The Arizona Diamondbacks and 12 News KPNX, Tegna’s NBC affiliate in Phoenix, have renewed a local broadcast distribution agreement that will bring 10 Diamondbacks games over-the-air to fans during the 2026 season. In addition, 12 News will air the season opener as part of the Major League Baseball on NBC national broadcast agreement, bringing the total number of over-the-air games on 12 News to 11 this season.

The deal continues what the club and Tegna called a highly successful deal for games last year that delivered strong viewership and overwhelmingly positive fan feedback requesting more Diamondbacks baseball.

“Our first year partnering with 12 News exceeded every expectation, not only in viewership, but in how deeply it allowed us to connect with fans,” said Derrick Hall, D-backs president, CEO and general partner. “Together, we brought D-backs baseball to more households while also taking fans inside our organization like never before, introducing them to our players and people, showcasing our connection to the community and highlighting the many fan experiences that make Chase Field and D-backs baseball so special. We are excited to build on that success and continue expanding access to the game we love.”

12 News reaches approximately 1.59 million television households across the market, ensuring broad exposure to games and expanding access for fans. In addition to Phoenix, over-the-air broadcasts extend to surrounding regions including Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and parts of Nevada. Combined market reach totals 3,778,503 TV households per comScore (Phoenix, Tucson, Salt Lake City, Las Vegas, Albuquerque-Santa Fe, Yuma-El Centro).

“We are thrilled to renew our partnership with the Arizona Diamondbacks after such a successful first season together,” said Kate Morris, president and general manager of 12 News. “The fan response made it clear that viewers want more over-the-air baseball. Bringing 11 games to audiences this season, including the national season opener, allows us to expand access while continuing to showcase the team’s deep connection to our community. This partnership is about more than games, it’s about hometown pride, shared storytelling, and serving fans across Arizona.”

The full lineup of over-the-air games includes March 26 vs. Dodgers (Season Opener - MLB on NBC), March 30 vs. Tigers (Home Opener), April 17 vs. Blue Jays, May 22 vs. Rockies, June 5 vs. Nationals, July 4 vs. Brewers, July 17 vs. Cardinals, August 7 vs. Dodgers, August 21 vs. Reds, September 11 vs. Rangers and September 18 vs. Yankees. Dates and matchups are subject to change.

In addition to live game broadcasts, 12 News will again produce “D-backs on Deck,” a one-hour gameday show airing prior to each broadcast. Hosted by sports anchors and reporters Cameron Cox, Lina Washington, and Jake Garcia, the program delivers analysis, behind-the-scenes access, and interviews with players and team personnel.

Season coverage begins with special Opening Day programming on March 26.

NTCA—The Rural Broadband Association (NTCA) has come out strongly against the proposed merger of Nexstar and Tegna in a filing with the Federal Communications Commission arguing that “any relaxation of the national television ownership cap” will force operators to pay higher retransmission consent fees, which in turn will have a “severe and worsening impact” on rural communities by forcing consumers to pay higher prices.

“NTCA therefore opposes the merger and urges the Commission to reject it as contrary to the public interest and inconsistent with the Commission’s commitment to serving rural America,” the group said.

NTCA is an industry association composed of approximately 850 community-based companies and cooperatives that provide advanced communications services in rural America and more than 400 other firms that support or themselves are engaged in the provision of such services.

In a Jan. 26 filing with the FCC, the NTCA cited survey data that “highlights the troubling escalation of retransmission costs foisted upon rural video providers. In their most recent retransmission consent negotiations, rural MVPDs experienced average fee increases of $128,351, a substantial rise from the $104,020 increase in 2024 and the $78,022 increase in 2023,” the group said. “This acceleration in fee growth demonstrates that the cost pressures identified by NTCA in previous comments are only intensifying. The impact on rural consumers is severe, as roughly 87% of these providers report having had to pass these increased fees directly on to their subscribers. Research continues to demonstrate that MVPDs pay significantly more for programming from large, consolidated broadcast groups compared to independent stations.”

“Nexstar Media is already among the nation’s largest and most powerful broadcast groups,” the filing stressed. “The proposed addition of Tegna’s 64 stations would concentrate further control over programming. Based on the pattern evident in NTCA’s survey data, approval of this merger would likely deliver to Nexstar even greater bargaining power to demand higher retransmission consent fees, with rural MVPDs and their consumers bearing the cost. The timing of this merger application, following a year of particularly steep fee increases, underscores the critical importance of maintaining ownership limits to preserve whatever negotiating leverage remains for small rural operators.”

The full filing can be found here.

TV Tech’s full coverage of the proposed deal can be found here and here with numerous articles laying out arguments by Nexstar and Tegna that the ownership caps should be lifted and that the deal would have a positive impact on the broadcast industry.

TYSONS, Va.—In a notable example of how local broadcasters are responding to widespread usage of mobile video, Tegna is making a major bet on mobile video with the launch of new mobile apps across 50 markets.

The innovative new apps deliver up-to-the-minute coverage of news and weather stories from its local journalists and meteorologists and provide users with thousands of original daily mobile videos in a scrolling vertical feed that are personalized for users based on individual preferences.

The new mobile apps are part of a larger strategy by the station group to transform its news operations into 24/7 story-first newsrooms, built to capture and deliver local stories in real time as they unfold.

“Our audiences rely on us for credible, local coverage that helps them stay connected to their communities and make informed decisions in the moment. That’s why we’ve reimagined our newsrooms as story-first operations, built for speed and accuracy around the clock – not just fixed broadcast timeslots. This app is an expression of our local newsroom of the future, where great local journalism meets people exactly where they are, on the devices they use throughout the day,” said Adrienne Roark, chief content officer, Tegna.

The new mobile app first launched in four beta markets – Atlanta, Denver, Indianapolis, and Seattle – and is available for download in both the App Store and Google Play Store, with other Tegna markets launching on a rolling basis over the next few weeks.

The new app is already delivering strong results. Video plays are up more than tenfold during the testing period, and user sessions have increased by 40%.

“By emphasizing digital design and the user experience, we’re delivering what audiences truly want: real-time, easy-to-watch video updates from trusted local reporters and weather teams,” said Dhanusha Sivajee, chief experience officer. “We’re encouraged with the early audience response and plan to release new mobile features on a regular basis tied to the valuable feedback we receive from our users.”

“To make true 24/7 news coverage across all screens possible, we had to reimagine the software powering our local teams from end-to-end,” said Kurt Rao, CTO. “Employing cutting-edge technology has unlocked more time for the teams to create original content for streaming and mobile.”

Tegna described the key features of the new mobile app as follows:

• Elegant design and fast video and image load times;
• Localized onboarding and active customization so users can quickly set location, interests, and notification preferences for the topics they care about most;
• A personalized home feed that surfaces the most important local news and weather stories in real time, tailored to each user;
• Story summaries that combine text, visuals, and related coverage so people can choose to skim, watch, or dive deeper into any story;
• A social‑native vertical video player that offers an immersive, scrollable feed of short original clips from local reporters and meteorologists;
• Best‑in‑class local weather with customizable forecasts, maps, and alerts powered by station meteorologists;
• Topic exploration hubs that highlight in‑depth coverage of key local and national priorities, including politics, public safety, education, sports, and community life;
• Premium integrated advertising solutions that give brands new ways to reach highly engaged, local mobile audiences;
• Profile and account tools that let users manage preferences, save stories, and receive alerts across devices.

WASHINGTON—Twenty-eight public-interest groups, labor unions and civil-rights organizations have sent the Federal Communications Commission a letter supporting a petition that asks the agency to deny the proposed merger of Nexstar and Tegna.

The petition was filed at the end of 2025 by Free Press, the National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians—Communications Workers of America (NABET-CWA), The NewsGuild—Communications Workers of America (TNG-CWA), the United Church of Christ Media Justice Ministry and Public Knowledge. It urged the FCC to reject the acquisition which would put Nexstar over the ownership caps currently governing broadcast station groups.

Our coverage of the petition is available here and our coverage of the deal can be found here.

“The proposed transaction would cause incredibly high levels of concentration in local TV markets, would raise cable and satellite prices around the country, would cause irreparable harm to local news and consumers and would be contrary to the public interest,” wrote the signers of the Jan. 26 letter in support of the petition to deny. They added that the FCC lacks the authority to approve this merger.

If approved, the multibillion-dollar deal would combine the nation’s largest television-station conglomerate with its fourth largest. Nexstar controls more than 200 television stations in 116 local U.S. markets. If the FCC approves the merger, the combined entity would own and/or operate 265 full-power television stations in 44 states and the District of Columbia, and would be present in 132 of the country’s 210 television Designated Market Areas (or DMAs), the letter noted.

Signers of the letter include AFT, the American Economic Liberties Project, Asian Americans Advancing Justice — AAJC, Asian and Pacific Islander American Vote (APIAVote), the Center for Journalism & Liberty at Open Markets Institute, the Committee for the First Amendment, Common Cause, Fourth Branch Action, Get Free, the Hispanic Federation, HTTP, Indivisible, the Japanese American Citizens League, Local Independent Online News Publishers, MANA—A National Latina Organization, the Media and Democracy Project, the Multicultural Media Telecom & Internet Council, NAACP, the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, the National Council of Asian Pacific Americans (NCAPA), the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW), the National Hispanic Media Coalition, the National Urban League, the OCA-Asian Pacific American Advocates, Public Citizen, SAG-AFTRA, the Writers Guild of America East and the Writers Guild of America West.

The full letter of support is available here.

WASHINGTON—Sinclair has filed comments with the Federal Communications Commission backing the proposed acquisition of Tegna by Nexstar arguing that FCC has authority to lift ownership caps and that the combination would not harm competing local news outlets like Sinclair in markets around the country.

“We respectfully submit that many of the Petitioners are wolves in sheep’s clothing,” the filing said. “They lecture the Commission about competition and the importance of local journalism despite their complete lack of involvement in promoting, preserving, or expanding local news. For its part, Sinclair competes with both Nexstar and Tegna. Indeed, our stations would overlap with a merged Nexstar and Tegna in 15 markets. If any party would have standing to legitimately protest this transaction, it would be us.”

“Yet we are submitting comments in this proceeding because, unlike the Petitioners, we recognize that the market in which local broadcasters compete today is far larger than broadcast television,” Sinclair argued. “The issues at stake are larger than any single broadcaster or transaction. If the Commission wants to preserve local news, it must modernize its regulations and its conception of the relevant market before it is too late.”

Referring to massive changes in the media landscape with the rise of big tech dominated digital platforms and streaming services, Sinclair stressed that “in their pleadings, Petitioners dig a broad and deep hole in the sand and invite the Commission to bury its head, ignoring everything that anyone who has been paying attention understands about the radical changes in the media and video ecosystem over the past two decades. Petitioners engage in fanciful thinking regarding relevant markets and recycle hopelessly outdated arguments that are wrong on the law and wrong on policy.”

More specifically, Sinclair argued that the FCC has the authority to raise ownership caps: “Section 202(c)(1)(B) of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 did not itself establish a statutory ownership limit. Rather, Congress directed the Commission to `modify its rules’ to increase the national audience reach limitation to 35 percent.4 By instructing the Commission to revise its regulations, Congress confirmed that the power to revise the national cap resided in the FCC’s ownership rules and not in the Communications Act itself. In 2004, after the Commission had raised the national cap to 45 percent, Congress did not question the Commission’s authority to raise the cap. Rather, Congress simply instructed the Commission to once again modify its rules to increase the national cap to 39 percent.”

Sinclair also rebutted arguments that the deal would reduce competition: “As the Commission is aware, just two dominant streaming platforms, YouTube and Netflix, capture a greater share of viewing than all broadcasting combined. Yet YouTube and Netflix face no restrictions on their ability to operate at scale – in fact, they operate globally. Nor do they face any limitation or restriction on their ability to continue to grow to reach more viewers – and indeed there is every expectation that they will continue to do so.”

“The petitions to deny submitted in this proceeding fail to acknowledge the very real changes in the media marketplace over the previous decades,” Sinclair concluded in the Jan. 15 2026 filing. “They provide no basis for the Commission to deny the transaction at issue in this proceeding – rather, they rely on outdated assumptions and are in many cases flatly self-interested and anticompetitive.”

The full filing is available here.

LONG ISLAND CITY, N.Y.—With a deadline looming for inking a new retransmission consent deal with Tegna, the cable operator Optimum has issued a statement, forcefully rejecting what it calls “excessive and unjustified demands from Tegna."

"Tegna is pursuing egregious fee increases that are divorced from market reality, including a massive 30% hike for major network affiliates and a colossal 50% increase for The CW,” the operator said in a press release.

“Optimum will always take a stand for our customers against broadcasters and programmers demanding significantly higher fees for the same content,” Keith Bowen, president of news, programming and business services at Optimum, said. “Tegna is operating as if the market hasn’t changed in 20 years and its request is nothing short of egregious.

TV Tech has reached out to Tegna for comment.

In the Optimum release, the operator also stressed the link between rising retrans fees and consolidation in the broadcast station business. Broadcasters believe consolidation will help them better compete against big tech firms, while pay TV operators believe it will lead to higher prices for programming.

“These demands from Tegna cannot be viewed in isolation; they are directly linked to the looming merger of Nexstar and Tegna and a broadcasting industry that is rapidly contracting into a duopoly,” the release said. “In fact, Optimum’s negotiations with Tegna and Nexstar—with expirations just one week apart—expose the dark side of broadcaster consolidation.

Optimum did not say when its deal with Tegna expired but others have reported the deadline was in December 2025.

Earlier this year, Nexstar's stations were blacked out on Optimum between Jan. 10 and 18, when a new deal was reached.

"Tegna is attempting to lock in skyrocketing rates now, effectively forcing Optimum’s constituents to pre-pay for a merger that will only reduce their choices,” Bowen said. “Optimum is taking this stand not just for today, but to stop a trend where broadcasters use the threat of blackouts to fund their takeover sprees. As broadcasters race to consolidate, they are leaving the consumer behind. Optimum urges policymakers to look closely at how these rate demands serve as a precursor to anticompetitive behavior.”

WASHINGTON—The Federal Communications Commission has opened a docket for comments on the proposed $6.2 billion Nexstar acquisition for Tegna and set deadlines for comments.

Nexstar reported that the combined company would serve 54.5% of the national audience, which means it would need a waiver of the National Television Multiple Ownership Rule limiting station groups to 39% reach of the national audience.

It is also seeking a waver of rules that prevent it from owning more than two full power stations in 23 markets.

On December 1, 2025, the FCC began accepting filing applications at MB Docket No. 25-331 on the proposed transfer of all outstanding equity interests in Tegna, the parent company of 64 full power television stations, one AM radio station, one FM radio station, and other related FCC licenses, to Nexstar Media Inc.

The FCC said that any Petition to Deny filings must be received by December 31, 2025; Opposition filings must be submitted by January 15, 2026 and Reply filings by January 26, 2026.

The FCC noted that the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit has issued its mandate in Zimmer Radio of Mid-Missouri, Inc. v. FCC. The ruling in that case vacated and remanded the portion of the Commission’s Local Television Ownership Rule prohibiting common ownership of two of the top four ranked stations in the same Nielsen Designated Market Area (DMA) (Top-Four Prohibition), subject to certain exceptions.

In that ruling the court also vacated an amendment to Note 11 of 47 CFR § 73.3555 that included multicast and low-power television streams in the Top-Four Prohibition.

As a result, the remaining portion of the Commission’s Local Television Ownership Rule 47 CFR § 73.3555(b) now permits common ownership of two television stations in a single DMA without restriction.

Even so, Nexstar is seeking a waiver of the Commission’s Local Television Ownership Rule with respect to the 23 DMAs in which Nexstar proposes to own more than two full power television stations.

The FCC also reported that its National Television Multiple Ownership Rule prohibits a single entity from owning television stations that, in the aggregate, reach more than 39% of the total television households in the United States, after taking into account a 50% discount to UHF stations.

Because the combined companies would serve 54.5% of the national audience, Nexstar is seeking a waiver of the National Television Multiple Ownership Rule.

More information is available here.

Filings in the docket can be accessed here.

IRVING, Texas—Nexstar Media Group and Tegna filed applications on Nov. 18 with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) seeking its consent to transfer broadcast licenses currently controlled by Tegna to Nexstar.

Earlier on Nov. 18, Tegna shareholders approved the $6.2 billion merger in a special meeting.

The redacted filings weren’t immediately available on the FCC site, but a copy obtained by TV Tech stressed the importance of the agency’s approval and pushed for the Commission to waive certain ownership rules so that the deal could be approved.

“The Applications demonstrate that the Transaction unequivocally will serve the public interest and its approval is urgently needed,” the filing said. “Despite Nexstar’s and Tegna's positions as industry leaders, both are susceptible to intense market forces conspiring against their ability to sustain operations at their current level, and these challenges are amplified by the specific circumstances in the markets in which waiver of the Commission’s rules may be necessary to allow the proposed combinations.”

The broadcasters cited the importance of their local news, their ability to alert local communities about threats to public safety and severe weather and their investments in technologies like ATSC 3.0 as examples of their public service.

“Each has demonstrated leadership in moving the broadcast industry forward toward technologies that better serve consumers. Yet, against the backdrop of existential changes to the market in which they compete, maintaining the status quo simply is not an option for either company,” they told the FCC.

“In short, this Transaction is absolutely critical to preserve the ability of the local television stations owned by Nexstar and Tegna to continue as viable, reliable sources of trusted, locally-focused news and information,” it concluded. “Local television stations are among the few remaining such sources—particularly given the gutting of local newspapers—in a media landscape that is more and more dominated by national and global technology and media behemoths…The Transaction will provide the combined Nexstar with economies of scale and the reach needed to successfully compete with giants like Alphabet (Google, YouTube, YouTubeTV), Amazon (Amazon Ads, Prime Video, Twitch), Apple (AppleTV), Comcast (Peacock), Disney (Disney+, Hulu, ESPN, Fubo), Meta (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp), Netflix, Paramount (Paramount+, Pluto TV), TikTok, and Warner Bros. Discovery (HBO Max), all of which are unshackled in their ability to reach a national audience.”

In connection with the filing, Nexstar’s founder, chairman, chief executive officer, Perry Sook, reiterated those arguments and praised the Trump administration.

“Nexstar’s acquisition of Tegna is vitally important to the future of local television and local journalism,” he said. “We are grateful that the Trump administration and the FCC recognize that the current television ownership regulations are outdated and do not reflect the competitive media landscape as it has evolved over the past 25+ years. Like the Trump administration, we are focused on achieving deregulation, and we continue to advocate for the elimination of the antiquated constraints on local television ownership as the best solution to level the competitive playing field for all media.”

“While waiting for the FCC to complete its rule-making process, we submitted waiver requests to bypass the major barriers that prevent us from competing fairly—including with legacy media and Big Tech— massive entities with vast resources that afford them enormous influence that extends into every pocket, purse and backpack of Americans everywhere,” he added.

“To be clear, in an age of disinformation and political agendas, we are the anti-fake news,” he also noted. “Our news is delivered by trusted, familiar voices—journalists who live in the community—not a chat-bot or social media influencers. And yet, we are prohibited from broadcasting trusted local news and programming to hundreds of communities across the country because of antiquated regulatory constraints. In an era where political discourse has turned increasingly polarized and violent, our democracy requires that Americans have easy access to reliable fact-based journalism and community forums to debate the issues of the day safely and respectfully.”

“Nexstar’s acquisition of Tegna will provide us with the scale necessary for local journalism to thrive amidst a media landscape that is dominated by Big Tech and the legacy media companies, enabling us to continue not only investing in high-quality journalism and local news, but in serving our local communities in the best possible way,” he concluded.

(Editor’s note. When the filings become available on the FCC site we will post a link.)

TYSONS, Va.—Tegna has announced that its shareholders have voted overwhelmingly to approve the proposed $6.2 billion merger with Nexstar Media Group.

In August, the station groups entered into a definitive agreement for Nexstar to buy Tegna for about $6.2 billion. The deal would create a behemoth in the local broadcasting industry with 265 full-power television stations in 44 states and the District of Columbia, with stations in 132 of the country’s 210 television DMAs.

The Agreement and Plan of Merger, dated Aug. 18, was approved by holders of 98% of Tegna’s common stock who voted at a Nov. 18 special meeting, Tegna said.

The Federal Communications Commission still must approve the deal, which will require it to relax existing ownership caps.

The deal is expected to close by the second half of next year, Tegna said, subject to regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions. Upon closing, Tegna will become a subsidiary of Nexstar Media Group and its shares will no longer be traded on the New York Stock Exchange, the company said.

DENVER & TYSONS, Va.— Kroenke Sports & Entertainment (KSE) has extended a deal with Tegna that will allow Denver’s 9NEWS (KUSA-TV) and My20 (KTVD-TV) to air 20 Denver Nuggets games and 20 Colorado Avalanche games for free over-the-air during the upcoming NBA and NHL seasons.

It is the second straight year that the Tegna stations have aired the NBA and NHL games from the two franchises.

“We couldn’t be more excited to bring this fan-first partnership with Tegna back for another year,” said Kevin Demoff, president of team and media operations, KSE. “Last season’s overwhelming community response to this partnership reinforced our commitment to ensuring that the fans who support the Nuggets and Avs can cheer on their favorite teams even when they can’t be with us at Ball Arena.”

The broadcast agreement with Tegna Denver stations 9NEWS and My20 will enable nearly 3.5 million people in the Denver metro area to access games for free over-the-air. Last season, millions of viewers tuned in to the stations to watch the Nuggets advance to the NBA’s Western Conference Semifinals and the Avalanche earn their place in the NHL’s Stanley Cup Playoffs, Tegna reported.

This season, a total of 40 games from the two hometown teams will air on KTVD, with five Nuggets games and five Avalanche games broadcast simultaneously on 9NEWS, Denver’s NBC affiliate.

Denver-based Kroenke Sports & Entertainment owns such properties as the Denver Nuggets (NBA), Colorado Avalanche (NHL), Colorado Mammoth (NLL), Colorado Rapids (MLS), and Altitude Sports & Entertainment, a 24-hour regional television network.

Altitude Sports will produce the games for the stations.

“After last year’s tremendous success as the official over-the-air broadcast home of the Denver Nuggets and Colorado Avalanche, we’re excited to continue this partnership for another season,” said Mark Cornetta, senior vice president, media operations, Tegna. “The response last year exceeded our expectations, and we’re proud to once again provide Denver fans with the ability to watch their beloved Nuggets and Avs play.”

In advance of the Nuggets and Avalanche seasons, Altitude Sports continues to be available throughout its nine-state territory on Xfinity TV, DirecTV, DirecTV Stream, Fubo and various other local providers.

IRVING, Texas and TYSONS, Va.—Nexstar Media Group, Inc. and Tegna Inc. have entered into a definitive agreement for Nexstar to buy Tegna for about $6.2 billion, in a deal that would create a behemoth in the local broadcasting industry with 265 full-power television stations in 44 states and the District of Columbia and 132 of the country’s 210 television DMAs.

As part of the agreement, Nexstar will acquire all outstanding shares of Tegna for $22.00 per share in a cash transaction valued at $6.2 billion, inclusive of Tegna’s net debt and estimated transaction fees and expenses.

The purchase price represents a 31% premium to Tegna’s average 30-day average stock price ending August 8, 2025, the last closing stock price prior to media reports of a potential transaction, the companies said.

The deal is the latest example of industry-wide sentiment that the FCC will relax or eliminate ownership caps and that the industry is about to embark on a wave of massive consolidation.

“The initiatives being pursued by the Trump administration offer local broadcasters the opportunity to expand reach, level the playing field, and compete more effectively with the Big Tech and legacy Big Media companies that have unchecked reach and vast financial resources,” Nexstar’s chairman and CEO Perry A. Sook said in a statement regarding the deal that explicitly highlighted the importance of deregulation in the company's future. “We believe Tegna represents the best option for Nexstar to act on this opportunity. Tegna is a premier operator with high quality local television stations primarily in the top 75 DMAs. We and Tegna are similarly dedicated to providing communities of all sizes with the best programming and fact-based local journalism along with innovative digital products and marketing solutions for local viewers and advertisers. The transaction will increase Nexstar’s reach through the expansion of our presence in important DMAs such as Atlanta, Phoenix, Seattle, and Minneapolis, as well as enhance our local presence, enabling us to continue to provide the core local news and programming that is in the public’s interest.”

Upon closing, Nexstar, together with its partners, will have 265 full-power television stations in 44 states and the District of Columbia and 132 of the country’s 210 television DMAs. The combined company will have stations in 9 of the top 10 DMAs, 41 of the top 50 DMAs, 62 of the top 75 DMAs and 82 of the top 100 DMAs, covering, in total, 80% of U.S. television households.

The deal also strengthens Netstars presence in many markets. Nexstar’s station footprint overlaps with Tegna in 35 of Tegna’s 51 DMAs, providing improved synergy potential in these markets. It would also help the combined company better tap into political advertising. The addition of strong Big-4 affiliates in key contested election DMAs, such as Phoenix, AZ, Atlanta, GA, Toledo, OH, and Portland, ME, will enhance the political advertising outlook for Nexstar in even-numbered years, Nexstar said.

The companies also reported that on a combined basis for the last eight quarters annualized ending June 30, 2025, Nexstar, together with Tegna, would have combined net revenue (excluding synergies) of $8.10 billion and combined Adjusted EBITDA (excluding synergies) before stock-based compensation of $2.56 billion.

Based on its estimates for 2025, Nexstar expects to generate annual net synergies of approximately $300 million from a combination of revenue synergies and net operating expense reductions.

Together, the adjusted free cash flow of Tegna, the expected synergies on an after-tax basis and the estimated after-tax financing costs related to the transaction, is expected to be more than 40% accretive to Nexstar’s standalone adjusted free cash flow in the first twelve months after closing, the companies said.

After giving effect to the transaction, the incurrence of transaction-related debt, transaction expenses, and expected synergies, Nexstar expects its net leverage ratio to be approximately 4x at closing with de-leveraging to current leverage levels in 2028. As of June 30, 2025, Nexstar’s total net leverage ratio was 3.19x.

“Nexstar has a stellar long-term record of growth through its deals, having completed many well-received transactions since 2011, including the 2019 acquisition of Tribune Media," Sook added. "The playbook we followed to make those transactions successful – improving and increasing local content, executing on identified synergies, and quickly de-leveraging our balance sheet with free cash flow post close – are the same opportunities and strategies we will use in connection with this transaction. With committed financing and a plan for significant synergy realization, we believe the combined entity will be poised for growth, leverage reduction, and the enhancement of shareholder value.”

In a statement, Howard Elias, chairman of Tegna’s Board of Directors commented, “At Tegna, we share Nexstar’s commitment to local broadcasting, exemplified by numerous investments and initiatives, industry journalism awards, and the significant expansion of our local news content. This transaction, which will provide premium near-term value to Tegna shareholders, comes at a time of rapid change in our industry and reflects the fact that policymakers of all perspectives are calling for regulations governing our industry to be modernized. This transaction with Nexstar will further solidify the critical role our stations serve in our communities, preserve their trust, and be better able to compete in today’s highly fragmented media environment.”

Mike Steib, CEO of Tegna, added that “We are thrilled to have found a partner in Nexstar that will enable Tegna’s stations to continue doing what we do best: creating outstanding and impactful local content coupled with the delivery of indispensable digital products to the communities we serve around the country. Nexstar and Tegna both share a rich heritage of commitment to journalistic excellence and technological advancements. Together, we will expand news coverage to serve more communities, across more screens, and ultimately secure the future of local news for generations to come.”

PORTLAND, Ore. —In the wake of reports that Nexstar Media Group and Tegna are in advanced merger talks, respected advertising and media analyst Brian Wieser’s Madison & Wall Substack has issued an analysis arguing that consolidation won’t be a quick fix for ad woes facing station groups.

Wieser made the comments after The Wall Street Journal reported Aug. 9 that Nexstar is in advanced negotiations to acquire Tegna.

Madison & Wall estimates the deal would create the 18th largest seller of advertising in the world, with about $3.4 billion in ad revenue.

The proposed deal comes at as broadcasters hope the Federal Communications Commission will eliminate broadcast ownership requirements.. That has prompted a number of proposed acquisitions that would require changes in FCC rules, including Gray Media's plans to acquire stations from AMG and Block Communications.

If the Nexstar-Tegna deal is announced and completed, the scale of the much-larger new company wouldn't change Madison & Wall’s ongoing view of the challenges facing the TV station business, which has been hurt by the shift of ad dollars to digital. “[L]egacy advertisers of all sizes continually shift resources away from television and towards digital platforms,” the analysis noted.

For example, Madison & Wall said “auto retailers … according to data from their trade association (NADA) allocated 23.7% of advertising budgets to television in 2015, but only 10.9% last year. Over that same time period, internet advertising rose from 27.8% to 73.1% of the average dealership’s budget.”

In addition, the Madison & Wall analysis stressed that local broadcasters face ongoing competition from self-serve ad platforms such as The Trade Desk, Amazon and others, which simplify the digital ad-buying process.

Overcoming those obstacles, the Madison & Wall report said, will require more investments in reversing those trends than “we have seen in the past from any company in the local broadcast sector.”

The Federal Communications Commission’s Enforcement Bureau and Tegna have entered into a consent decree that will settle an investigation into the accidental airing of a porn clip during a 2021 newscast on KREM Spokane, Wash.

As part of the decree, Tegna agreed to make a “voluntary contribution” of $225,500 and to implement a compliance plan to avoid possible future violations of FCC rules.

The investigation dates back to an incident that got widespread national media attention. The FCC found that during KREM’s 6 p.m. newscast on Oct. 17, 2021, pornographic material was displayed for about 13 seconds on a monitor that was visible on-air during a weather forecast segment.

The station’s staff quickly acted to curtail the broadcast of the complained-of material by switching to a full-screen shot of weather graphics. KREM also apologized to viewers during its next newscast and, working with local law enforcement, launched an internal investigation into the cause of the incident.

Tegna found that someone used a built-in screencasting feature to transmit the video directly to the monitor via a legacy local wireless network outside of the station’s normal workflows. The Tegna investigation was not able to determine the person or persons responsible.

To prevent any future similar occurrences, Tegna on Oct. 21, 2021, directed all of its stations to disable all screencasting features and all wired or wireless network connectivity on all monitors located in station facilities.

As part of the consent decree, Tegna said it will designate a senior corporate manager to develop, implement and administer the compliance plan, which is laid out here.

Video of the incident is widely available online at Mediaite and other sites.

TYSONS, Va.—Tegna has named Carol Fowler, Julie Wolfe and Chris Peña as vice presidents of content, effective June 30. These appointments follow the company’s recent announcement that its stations will be adding more than 100 hours of new daily streaming programming across 51 markets.

“Carol, Julie and Chris each bring deep experience building innovative newsrooms and understand the importance of strong local journalism,” Adrienne Roark, chief content officer at Tegna, said. “They’re passionate about developing talent and creating engaging content that serves viewer needs across platforms. Their leadership will be instrumental in further strengthening Tegna’s award-winning content.”

In these new roles, each of the three leaders will oversee local stations in a dedicated geographic region, focusing on the quality, depth, and relevance of coverage and emphasizing the local impact and the daily practical value of information. Each will also oversee a content priority, such as weather coverage, big stories and events, morning news strategy, sales and sponsorships, storytelling and investigative and solutions-based journalism, Tegna said.

Working closely with general managers, news directors, and the newsroom staff who will maintain editorial leadership at Tegna’s local stations, the new leaders will strengthen storytelling and coverage capabilities.

Longtime Tegna newsroom leader Carol Fowler will oversee content strategy across the company’s stations in the Mid-South, including St. Louis, Knoxville, Memphis, Louisville, Fort Smith, Little Rock and New Orleans. A nationally recognized digital content strategist with more than 30 years of experience, Fowler currently leads content strategy at WXIA, Tegna’s NBC affiliate in Atlanta. She also led the newsroom at Tegna’s NBC affiliate in St. Louis, where her team won 23 regional RTDNA Edward R. Murrow Awards.

Throughout her career, Fowler has driven digital innovation across major media organizations including the Chicago Sun-Times and three Chicago TV stations, Fox-owned WFLD, CBS-owned WBBM-TV and The CW affiliate WGN-TV. She founded KloboMedia in 2014, pioneering the development of social media analytics software. The Mississippi native and University of Missouri-Columbia graduate taught media innovation at Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism.

Julie Wolfe will oversee content strategy for Tegna stations in the West, including Phoenix; Sacramento, California; San Diego; Seattle; Portland, Oregon; Spokane, Washington; Boise, Idaho; and Denver. Wolfe currently serves as news director at KING, Tegna’s NBC affiliate in Seattle, where she has driven digital innovation and cross-platform storytelling for the station since 2021. This year, under her leadership, KING took home 11 Regional Edward R. Murrow Awards, including overall excellence. Previously, she served as news director for WHAS, Tegna’s ABC affiliate in Louisville, where she helped transform key shows, earning multiple Emmy and regional Edward R. Murrow Awards.

A University of Georgia graduate, Wolfe also spent more than a decade at Tegna station WXIA Atlanta, progressing from multimedia journalist to assistant news director. She remains active in industry leadership, chairing RTDNA’s Finance Committee and serving on multiple professional boards.

Chris Peña will oversee content strategy for Tegna’s Midwest region, managing operations in Cleveland, Toledo, Columbus, Grand Rapids, Indianapolis, Des Moines, Davenport and Minneapolis. Peña currently serves as director of broadcast transformation at Blue Engine, a firm that provides coaching and consulting to media firms to foster audience growth, revenue diversification, and digital transformation. Previously, Peña was senior vice president of news at Univision Local Media, where he led multi-platform content strategy and branding across 19 television stations.

Throughout his career, Peña has led all weekend live programming, including the 24-hour breaking news team for MSNBC, and notably launched NBC Latino, a digital platform delivering English-language Hispanic news. Peña serves on the consulting council of the Consortium on Trust in Media and Technology at the University of Florida and the journalism council of the News Literacy Project. He holds a bachelor’s degree in radio and television from the University of Houston and is a graduate of Columbia University’s Sulzberger Executive Leadership Program in Media.

TYSONS, Va.—Tegna is embarking on a notable expansion of its already substantial local news programming by launching live and on-demand local newscasts from 7 to 9 a.m. daily in more than 50 markets through streaming, connected TV apps and station websites.

Overall, the expansion of local news programming will deliver over 100 hours of daily breaking news, weather and traffic to more than 100 million viewers.

Stations in 35 markets will be actively delivering live, local programming from 7 to 9 a.m. this summer, with 50+ markets expected to have live, local programming in that window this fall, the broadcaster reported.

“Local news drives daily decisions,” said Adrienne Roark, chief content officer at Tegna. “With the debut of our new programming, our audiences will now have the option to watch live news produced by their trusted stations during a time of day when local coverage has been largely unavailable. In addition to serving our viewers, it will also create new opportunities for our advertisers to reach audiences regardless of where they are and how they consume our content.”

Tegna stations across the country, including KGW Portland, Oregon, WCNC Charlotte, North Carolina, and WKYC Cleveland, began testing the live digital news stream in the 7 a.m. time slot earlier this year. In some markets, viewership increased by nearly 50% month-over-month, spiking even higher during severe weather or times of breaking news.

“This content expansion reinforces our companywide commitment to local news and we’re confident that it will further strengthen our newsrooms, enhance the viewer experience, support our communities and deliver value to all stakeholders,” Roark added.

To access the new digital content, Tegna said, viewers can download and open the Tegna station’s Plus app on a streaming device such as Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, or visit their local station’s website to access the livestream directly from a web browser. In select markets, this new programming will also be available on Tegna's secondary broadcast channels.

TYSONS, Va., and INDIANAPOLIS—Tegna and the Indiana Fever said broadcast stations in 11 additional Midwest markets will join WTHR Indianapolis in airing 18 of the WNBA team’s games for free, reaching 4.6 million households across the region.

As part of the expanded coverage, Tegna added stations in Iowa, with Tegna’s WOI in Des Moines and WQAD in Davenport (Quad Cities), bringing Indiana Fever games to superstar player Caitlin Clark’s home state.

Games will also air on Tegna’s WHAS Louisville, Kentucky, as well as stations owned by Gray Media, Sinclair, Allen Media Group, Coastal Television Broadcasting Group and Block Communications.

“We’re incredibly excited to expand our partnership with Tegna and bring Fever basketball to even more fans across the Midwest—free and over-the-air,” said Kelly Krauskopf, Indiana Fever president of basketball and business operations. “From Indiana to Iowa and beyond, this level of access is unprecedented in our franchise’s history and really reflects the surging popularity of our team, our players and women’s professional basketball.”

“We are thrilled to be part of the incredible success and growing enthusiasm surrounding the WNBA and the Indiana Fever,” said Brad Ramsey, senior vice president, media operations at Tegna. “It’s exciting to see our successful partnership with Pacers Sports and Entertainment give an even broader fanbase opportunities to connect with their favorite team and players on a local level.”

“Gray is thrilled to continue to provide fans the Indiana Fever games they want, free over-the-air,” said Sandy Breland, chief operating officer, Gray Media. “We look forward to an exciting season for the team and the fans.”

Fever games begin airing for free over-the-air on May 20 when the team meets Atlanta on the court. Highlight matchups include encounters with the defending champion New York Liberty on July 16 and two games against the Las Vegas Aces on July 3 and July 24.

The 18 games that will be broadcast under the agreement include:

• May 20 vs. Atlanta, 7 p.m. ET
• May 22 at Atlanta, 7:30 p.m. ET
• May 28 at Washington, 7:30 p.m. ET
• June 3 vs. Washington, 7 p.m. ET
• June 10 at Atlanta, 7:30 p.m. ET
• June 17 vs. Connecticut, 7 p.m. ET
• June 19 at Golden State, 10 p.m. ET
• June 24 at Seattle, 10 p.m. ET
• July 3 vs. Las Vegas, 7 p.m. ET
• July 5 vs. Los Angeles, 7 p.m. ET
• July 9 vs. Golden State, Noon ET
• July 16 at New York, 7:30 p.m. ET
• July 24 vs. Las Vegas, 7 p.m. ET
• Aug. 5 at Los Angeles, 10 p.m. ET
• Aug. 7 at Phoenix, 10 p.m. ET
• Aug. 24 at Minnesota, 7 p.m. ET
• Sept. 2 at Phoenix, 10 p.m. ET
• Sept. 7 at Washington, 3 p.m. ET

Stations airing the games (subject to change) include:

• Indianapolis, Ind.: WTHR 13.1 & WALV 46.1 (Tegna)
• Champaign-Springfield, Ill.: WAND 17.2 (Block Communications)
• Cincinnati, Ohio: WXIX 19.2, 19.3 (Gray Media)
• Davenport, Iowa: WQAD 8.1, 8.3 (Tegna)
• Dayton, Ohio: WKEF 22.3 (Sinclair)
• Des Moines, Iowa: WOI 5.1 & KCWI 23.1 (Tegna)
• Evansville, Ind.: WFIE 14.2 (Gray Media)
• Fort Wayne, Ind.: WPTA 21.1, 21.3 & WISE 33.1 (Gray Media)
• Lafayette, Ind.: WPBY 35.1, 35.2 (Coastal Television Broadcasting Group)
• Lexington, Ky.: WKYT 27.2, 27.4 (Gray Media)
• Louisville, Ky.: WHAS 11.2 (Tegna)
• Terre Haute, Ind.: WTHI 10.2, 10.3 (Allen Media Group)

While top executives at broadcast TV station groups reported first-quarter revenue declines amid economic uncertainty and the impact of tariffs on the economy, they offered bullish sentiments regarding the prospects for significant deregulation in broadcast ownership rules and M&A activity.

“In my 45-plus years in the industry, I continue to believe that the prospect of meaningful broadcast ownership reform has never been better than it is today,” Perry Sook, chairman and CEO of Nexstar Media Group and chair of the NAB’s Joint Board of Directors, said in kicking off Nexstar’s first-quarter earnings call. “We are fortunate to have a strong FCC chair in Brendan Carr, who keenly understands the need for local broadcast deregulation and the relief that we and the industry need on both the national ownership cap and in-market local ownership rules.”

Carr recently fueled hopes for deregulation in a May 7 interview by calling ownership rules "archaic" and "artificial." That was his strongest public statement to date indicating that he would change those rules.

Once the fifth FCC commissioner is confirmed this summer, giving Carr and the Republicans a majority, Sook said: “We anticipate chairman Carr will begin to take action on his agenda. In addition to our deregulatory agenda to level the playing field and to enable consolidation, we are also seeking to obtain a firm transition date for ATSC 1.0 standards to ATSC 3.0 standards, which will support and advance our rollout of high-speed data transmission and other services to allow us to fully monetize ancillary uses of our spectrum.”

Sook stressed that Nexstar’s “strong financial position and balance sheet” makes it well-prepared to capitalize on deregulation through M&A. “Historically, this strategy has created tremendous shareholder value,” he said.

On Tegna's earnings call, President and CEO Mike Steib said: “73 members of Congress have signed a letter to FCC chairman, Brendan Carr, advocating for deregulation and broadcasting and the Chairman is expected to have a majority soon. We're staying close to all of this and our healthy balance sheet, consistent free cash flow generation and track record of disciplined capital allocation position us well to pursue the best opportunities for value creation.

“Chairman Carr has been clear with his agenda and support for local broadcasters and the important role that local broadcasters play for our communities and the role that local news plays for our democracy,” he added later in response to a question about deregulation. “He is expected to have his majority soon. And as I noted in my prepared remarks, he seems to have bipartisan Congressional support for supporting local and supporting local broadcasters.”

He added that this “will unlock M&A opportunities in the space that can be really accretive for buyers and sellers,” but he cautioned that “until we know the full landscape and until we know the prices, I can't sort of comment more precisely as it pertains to how we think about...about capital, capital allocation.”

“I'm as excited about the M&A opportunity in this space as you all are, and I'm sure it's frustrating not to hear us be able to be more specific in our responses,” he added. “You probably imagine it is for us as well. What I can tell you is we believe that the deregulatory moment is coming and it's coming at just the right time.”

During its Q1 earnings call E.W. Scripps executives also highlighted the M&A opportunities that deregulation might bring.

"Most importantly, what we have accomplished over the last year has set us up well to move successfully through the company's next season," said Adam Symson, president, and CEO at E.W. Scripps. "Not far ahead, we see the prospect of local broadcast industry consolidation that will drive growth by finally allowing us to deepen our presence in our local markets, building upon the strong relationships we already have with viewers and advertisers to create even greater shareholder value with significant efficiency."

"I think it's fair to say that the commission recognizes that local news, local sports, local programming entirely depends on the durability of local television," he added later. "Standing in the way of that durability, we think are the rules that prevent consolidation, both in market and national consolidation that's necessary for us to compete on that level playing field with the national media companies, the networks and that are right now already using their leverage to essentially impair our abilities to serve local communities. So for us, we believe greater scale nationally and greater depth in market are necessary for our assets to perform their best for shareholders and continue in service to the communities where we operate. So I expect we'll do everything in our power to take advantage of this moment. I expect off the bat, given our balance sheet, our greatest opportunities would be both in swaps and in select asset sales."

Symson also highlighted signals from the FCC that they would like to strengthen local broadcasters in terms of their relations with broadcast networks in terms of affiliate fees and retransmission negotiations with vMVPDs.

"We think the commission recognizes that things have gotten to the point where the networks are using their economic leverage to control the airwaves, which is essentially a de facto violation of communications regulations," he said. "So the networks ought to be taking this moment as a call to action to address the issue proactively instead of waiting for it to be regulated."

He also expressed optimism that the FCC would actually move to lift ownership caps and that investors wouldn't once again be disappointed by caps remaining in place.

"I believe that the commission will act in a way that, as I said in my prepared remarks, rebalance the marketplace," he said.  

During its Q1 earnings call Gray Media chairman and CEO Hilton Howell Jr. said: “We are energized by the possibility that the government may, at last, allow local broadcasters to compete on a more level playing field with all of our competitors.”

“Market consolidation,” he added later, is “inherently universally positive in terms of saving money, but it also gives us, because we are so focused on the delivery of local news, local content, local sports, you’ve got to give the audiences something to view it all. The consolidation allows us to compete with the really huge tech giants that are actually taking about 80% of the local ad market. And so consolidation is an all in all positive for the entirety of the broadcast business. And we're very excited about it."

ARLINGTON, Texas—Two months after naming Tegna station KFAA in Dallas-Fort Worth its exclusive local broadcast partner for WNBA games, the Dallas Wings are expanding their broadcast reach through additional agreements with Tegna, Gray Media, and Corridor Television.

The agreements will triple the team's local TV footprint, bringing free, over-the-air Wings games to 6.3 million households across 12 markets during the 2025 season.

“As we prepare for one of the most anticipated seasons in franchise history, we are excited about the opportunity to deliver Dallas Wings basketball into more homes than ever before,” said Wings CEO and managing partner Greg Bibb. “Our partners at Tegna, Gray, and Corridor recognize the incredible demand there is to watch our games and have done a fantastic job in helping us secure additional markets to reach even more of our passionate fanbase.”

The team noted that Tegna worked with the WNBA to add coverage of these games on Tegna’s KTBU in Houston, KCEN/KAGS-LD in Waco-Killeen, KYTX in Tyler-Longview, KWES in Midland-Odessa, KXVA in Abilene and KIDY in San Angelo.

The same games will be carried on Gray Media’s KMYL in Lubbock, KFDA in Amarillo, and KXII in Sherman, along with Corridor Television’s KCWX in San Antonio and KCWX in Austin.

“We’re proud to bring the energy of one of the WNBA’s most exciting teams to fans across the region,” said Brad Ramsey, senior vice president, media operations at Tegna. “The passion for the Wings extends well beyond Dallas-Fort Worth, and delivering games free, over- the-air, is a win for both fans and stations.”

“Gray appreciates the opportunity to work with the Wings and Tegna to bring these exciting games to free over-the-air television in several of our Texas markets,” added Sandy Breland, Gray’s chief operating officer. “This season should be very exciting for the Wings and our viewers.”

The Wings announced their 2025 broadcast and streaming schedule at the end of March, which included 28 regular-season games featured on local broadcasts. Additionally, the May 10 preseason game against Japan’s Toyota Antelopes will also be carried in local Dallas Wings markets.

The 29 total games available to viewers are (times are listed in CT):

• Sat., May 10 vs. Toyota Antelopes, 7 p.m. (preseason)
• Mon., May 19 vs. Seattle Storm, 7 p.m.
• Wed., May 21 at Minnesota Lynx, 7 p.m.
• Sat., May 24 at Atlanta Dream, 2 p.m.
• Tues., May 27 at Connecticut Sun, 6 p.m.
• Thurs., May 29 at Chicago Sky, 7 p.m.
• Sat., May 31 vs. Chicago Sky, 7 p.m.
• Sun., June 8 vs. Minnesota Lynx, 3 p.m.
• Wed., June 11 at Phoenix Mercury, 9 p.m.
• Tues., June 17 vs. Golden State Valkyries, 7 p.m.
• Sun., June 22 at Washington Mystics, 2 p.m.
• Tues., June 24 vs. Atlanta Dream, 7 p.m.
• Sat., June 28 vs. Washington Mystics, 7 p.m.
• Thurs., July 3 vs. Phoenix Mercury, 7 p.m.
• Mon., July 7 at Phoenix Mercury, 9 p.m.
• Wed., July 9 at Chicago Sky, 7 p.m.
• Wed., July 16 vs. Las Vegas Aces, 7 p.m.
• Tues., July 22 at Seattle Storm, 9 p.m.
• Sun., July 27 vs. Las Vegas Aces, 3 p.m.
• Wed., July 30 vs. Atlanta Dream, 7 p.m.
• Tues., Aug. 5 at New York Liberty, 6 p.m.
• Sun., Aug. 10 vs. Washington Mystics, 3 p.m.
• Wed., Aug. 20 at Los Angeles Sparks, 9 p.m.
• Sun., Aug. 24 vs. Golden State Valkyries, 3 p.m.
• Wed., Aug. 27 vs. Connecticut Sun, 7 p.m.
• Mon., Sept. 1 at Minnesota Lynx, 7 p.m.
• Thurs., Sept. 4 at Golden State Valkyries, 9 p.m.
• Sun., Sept. 7 at Los Angeles Sparks, 5 p.m.
• Thurs., Sept. 11 vs. Phoenix Mercury, 7 p.m.

Stations airing the games (subject to change) include:

• Dallas-Fort Worth: KFAA 29.1 (Tegna)
• Abilene: KXVA 15.2 (Tegna)
• Amarillo: KFDA 10.2 (Gray)
• Austin: KCWX 2.1, KCWX 2.2 (Corridor)
• Houston: KTBU 55.1
• Lubbock: KMYL 14.1 (Gray)
• Midland-Odessa: KWES 9.2 (Tegna)
• San Angelo: KIDY 6.2 (Tegna)
• San Antonio: KCWX 2.1, KCWX 2.2 (Corridor)
• Sherman: KXII 12.2 (Gray)
• Tyler-Longview: KYTX 19.3 (Tegna)
• Waco-Killeen: KCEN 6.2, KAGS 23.2 (Tegna)

NEW YORK—Premion, a CTV/OTT advertising solution for regional and local advertisers, has launched expanded capabilities and new tools for advertisers to execute and optimize campaigns across channels.

With the integration of Octillion, Premion has further strengthened its purpose-built local CTV platform and demand side platform (DSP) to drive full-funnel outcomes, the company reported.

Launched in 2016 by Tegna, Premion is a premium CTV/OTT advertising platform for regional and local advertisers. Gray Television, Inc. acquired a minority stake in Premion in 2020.

The upgrades follow the acquisition of Octillion by Premion in 2024.

“Consumers have embraced streaming for its convenience, choice and control, making CTV the fastest-growing ad channel. Advertisers want that same flexibility in buying CTV while optimizing spend and performance across channels, whether through managed services or programmatic buying,” said Daniel Spinosa, president at Premion. “Publishers are also eager to unlock more local revenue, and with expanded capabilities powered by our DSP, we’re providing innovative solutions that meet these needs, creating a win-win for all.”

Premion reported that its DSP transforms local CTV advertising with a privacy-focused, cookieless platform that enhances audience targeting and campaign performance across channels, while a powerful device graph enables seamless identity resolution.

Unified attribution tools allow brands and agencies to track the full customer journey and optimize outcomes in multi-touch marketing campaigns.

Premion described the newest improvements as follows:

• Expanded Omnichannel Advertising Solution for Advertisers. Premion’s DSP seamlessly integrates CTV into a broader omnichannel strategy, allowing advertisers to combine CTV with video, audio, display, and retargeting for a unified approach.
• Simplified Co-Op Advertising to Maximize Performance. Premion’s Co-Op advertising solution revolutionizes traditional co-op models by eliminating campaign competition and enhancing return on ad spend (ROAS). Co-Op advertising is a powerful yet often underused strategy to amplify CTV campaigns. By sharing advertising costs among brand partners, co-op programs reduce spend, increase exposure, and ensure consistent branding across locations, enabling brands to achieve more with less.
• Strengthened Publisher Relationships to Drive Local Revenue Growth. Premion continues to expand its partnerships to include all major publishers, many of whom are new to the local CTV space. By providing access to differentiated demand, Premion offers publishers a scalable solution that complements their national direct sales efforts while unlocking new revenue opportunities in local markets.
• Achieved TAG Platinum Status for Brand Safety and Fraud Protection. Brand safety has always been foundational to Premion’s platform. Reinforcing its leadership in delivering a trusted advertising environment, Premion has achieved “TAG Platinum” status, recertified for the TAG Brand Safety Certified Seal and the TAG Certified Against Fraud Seal, and earned the TAG Certified Against Malware Seal for the first time from the Trustworthy Accountability Group (TAG).

“Local relevance is a top priority for advertisers, and we’ve supercharged our ad-tech capabilities to drive automation, enhance data-rich targeting, and unify attribution. Local differs from national, and with our DSP, we’re delivering the precision, flexibility, and expertise that set Premion apart,” added Spinosa.

As pro sports teams’ engagements with TV station groups explode into a historic search for a successor to the pay-TV distribution model, they’re generating a wealth of promising options with one overarching question still unanswered: Will they last?

Can any of these efforts generate the robust returns pro sports leagues enjoyed during the golden decades of the regional sports network (RSN) era that came to a crashing halt when Diamond, the biggest player in the field, filed for bankruptcy in early 2023? And, if not, do streaming giants really offer the gold-plated payoff some OTT advocates are touting?

Two years into this grand experiment, the acceleration in deals between station owners, pro teams and their leagues, including engagements prompted by the surging popularity of women’s sports, attests to growing optimism that OTA broadcasters are the key to the way forward. But as promising as the early results might be, it remains to be seen whether what’s happening translates into what Gray Media president and co-CEO Pat LaPlatney calls “needle-moving revenues” for the station groups, let alone for teams and leagues.

It’s All About Reach
The good news is, so far, so good on all sides. Noting Gray’s expanding portfolio of alliances with NBA, WNBA, MLB, NHL and other pro sports leagues, LaPlatney asserts the combination of “tons of live sports” and local news offered through Gray’s regional station clusters harkens back to an earlier era in regional broadcast operations. “It’s a really good model,” he says.

And, he adds, it looks like a winning model for the teams as well. “Broader distribution leads to better marketing, better ad sales, selling more tickets and more merch,” he says. “It’s a virtuous cycle.”

Discussions with other station group executives elicit a similar perspective on what has turned the sports tide in their direction amid the nosedive in subscribers to Diamond’s 18 former Baily RSNs now operating under the FanDuel brand and the many other RSNs still dotting the landscape.

That collapse led to FanDuel exercising its rights to broadcast the games by cutting carriage deals with station groups while retaining control over production, which leaves open the question of how carriage and production will be worked out with the leagues once those deals expire.

“The regional sports network was a great business for decades,” says Scripps Sports president Brian Lawlor from last month’s TV Tech Leadership Summit. “It reached 80% of all the households in a market. Today that number is less than 40 in most markets.”

But Brad Ramsey, senior vice president of media operations for Tegna, who heads up the company’s sports distribution efforts, says it’s not easy for station groups as they make their case for providing better reach to the sports leagues. “While audiences are significantly larger on broadcast and we have fantastic data points and case studies estimating and showing we’re achieving big audience growth,” he says, “it’s going to take time for advertising and sponsorship to catch up and match the way things have been done in recent years.”

No Quick Fixes from Streaming
Still, broadcasters can forge ahead knowing there are no quick fixes for the leagues. Looking at MLB’s conundrum following its mutual agreement with ESPN to terminate the final two years of their seven-year contract, legal analyst Rob Rosenberg, founder and principal at Telluride Legal Strategies, cites the risks the league faces trying to fill or exceed the $550-million annual revenue gap with another big distribution deal.

“If you think about it realistically, if MLB is looking for a big payday for putting together a national rights deal in 2028, is Fox CBS, NBC or ABC going to be in a better financial situation than they are today?” Rosenberg asks. And given the volatility and audience fragmentation plaguing the streaming business, there are no easy answers on the streaming side either.

“MLB will have to balance getting maximum dollars in a big contract with the need to get the reach they need to regenerate audiences and fans in their local markets,” he says. “It’s not a long-term win if you leave reach out of the equation.”

The New Consensus on a Way Forward
The consensus now taking hold across the sports ecosystem is that the new business framework will have to be built on a well-conceived mix of local TV, national network broadcasting and streaming with the likelihood the returns on pay TV distribution will continue to slide. “It may take a while for them to phase down and out, but I think RSNs are a dying breed,” Rosenberg says.

HFS Research analyst Jason Dann, in a new report describing how “sports media is scrambling to meet consumer demands,” makes clear where he thinks they should place their bets: “The solution? A hybrid approach. Leaders must balance embracing digital innovation and ensuring accessibility for all audiences.”

Jeremy Goldman, senior director at Emarketer agrees. In another recent post describing research on the sports distribution situation, he says, “The shift to digital viewing represents a pivotal moment in sports media consumption, but the transition poses significant challenges. The fragmentation of rights across multiple platforms creates friction for consumers while driving up costs. Success in this new environment will require balancing traditional broadcast reach with digital innovation.”

Nobody is playing the pro sports broadcast and streaming arena more broadly than Scripps Sports, which has also taken a leading role in bringing women’s pro sports to broadcast (see sidebar). The unit works with the E.W. Scripps portfolio of 61 stations in 41 markets and the national ION broadcast network to provide distribution platforms for sports partners, including the WNBA, the National Women’s Soccer League, the NHL’s Florida Panthers, Vegas Golden Knights and Utah Hockey Club, and the NCAA’s Big Sky Conference.

On the streaming side, along with coordinating with outside streaming services, the company has partnered with sports streamer ViewLift to launch a free streaming outlet providing Panther fans online access to 70 Scripps broadcast games and a pay streaming service in Nevada covering roughly the same number of Golden Knights broadcasts.

“We really like the formula,” Lawlor says, noting the ratings for Scripps’ broadcast of Golden Knights games in the first year of the affiliation were double the previous year and ratings at the halfway mark in the first year with the Panthers are up 130%.

As for any perceived threat from pro teams’ affiliations with the major streaming services, Lawlor believes the broadcast and streaming domains are complementary and are likely to remain that way. “I don’t think it has to be either or,” he says. “It’s all about the visibility.”

Stations and Streamers Collaborate
And, notes Gray’s LaPlatney, for broadcasters it’s all about cooperating with the streamers. “In a lot of our deals, teams do the streaming deal in tandem with what they’re doing with us,” he says.

A particularly close relationship in this vein can be found in Gray’s groundbreaking April 2023 deal with the NBA’s Phoenix Suns and WNBA’s Mercury, which helped kick off pro sports’ teams moves away from RSNs. Along with locking in the Gray affiliations, which ignited statewide OTA broadcasts of all their home games, the teams’ ownership simultaneously signed on with the Kiswe streaming service to supply an AZ Family Sports Network cellphone app that gives residents free statewide online access to the games.

In September following the Phoenix deal, Gray signed another groundbreaking agreement with the New Orleans Pelicans, which replaced RSN coverage reaching about 250,000 households with free OTA and affiliated MVPD coverage over a new Gulf Coast Sports & Entertainment Network, reaching 4.1 million households on stations throughout Louisiana, much of Mississippi and Mobile, Ala. With stations serving 113 television markets nationwide, Gray is also racking up big successes with the likes of the Atlanta Braves, Texas Rangers and other MLB teams.

A similar story of ongoing expansion in a variety of dealmaking scenarios is unfolding at Tegna, which operates 64 television stations in 51 U.S. markets. Among a wide range of multi-sport affiliations described by Ramsey, Tegna is the primary rights holder with the Dallas Mavericks and the Seattle Kraken NHL franchise and has been working with the San Antonio Spurs since late 2023.

The company just agreed to carry most WNBA Dallas Wings games, and recently signed with Kroenke Sports & Entertainment, owner of the NBA’s Denver Nuggets and the NHL’s Avalanche, to carry 20 of each team’s games. There are also some OTA “carve outs” involving a handful of Indiana Pacer, Minnesota Timberwolves, and Milwaukee Bucks games, and Tegna is in discussions with five MLB teams weighing OTA partnerships.

One of the more interesting wrinkles in this multifaceted dealmaking quilt is Tegna’s arrangement with Amazon Prime in Seattle. “With Kraken, our linear feed is on Amazon Prime and our sales team is negotiating with advertisers based on how they want to use both the OTA and digital outlets to market their products,” Ramsey says, noting there’s nothing better than a win/win for everyone where teams can create a one-stop shop for marketers to reach all audiences on all screens.

“There are a number of ways linear and streaming can co-exist,” he adds. “In all cases teams are looking at the landscape thinking about how they can make their linear and digital rights complement each other and, at the end of the day, create the best financial outcomes.”

The resurgence in TV stations’ roles in sports broadcasting may just be getting underway, but it’s not too soon to think the hybrid approach to distribution could win out in the long run.