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.
Article continues belowLike 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.
