WASHINGTON—Several labor unions and public interest groups have filed a petition with the Federal Communications Commission urging the regulator to deny the Nexstar-Tegna merger because it would violate station ownership caps and would not be in the public interest.
“Though Nexstar and Tegna seek a waiver of this limit, the commission is prohibited by law from waiving, altering, or eliminating this National Cap,” the petitioners wrote, adding that as the FCC “is legally barred from granting applicants’ request to waive the National Multiple Ownership rule, the Commission should immediately deny those waiver requests and deny the application in full."
The petition to deny the transfer of broadcast licenses from Tegna to Nexstar was filed 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.
The Dec. 31 joint filing adds to a growing list of opponents to the deal. Others who have filed petitions opposing it now include EchoStar, Newsmax, Circle City Broadcasting, DirecTV and the American TV Alliance (ATVA).
Last November, Nexstar filed for FCC approval to acquire Tegna’s broadcast licenses. If approved, the multibillion-dollar deal would combine the nation’s first- and fourth-largest largest television-station groups. It would have 265 full-power television stations in 44 states and Washington, D.C.
The Nexstar filing argued that the deal “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.”
In its filing, EchoStar argued that the FCC does not have the authority to waive the 39% ownership cap and that the creation of a gigantic station group controlling “265 stations in 132, or 80%, of the country’s 210 Designated Market Areas…sharply contravenes [public]...interest. It would result in higher prices for multichannel video programming distributors and therefore for consumers.”
Circle City 's filing noted: “CCB is licensee of full-power television stations WISH-TV and WNDY-TV, both in the Indianapolis market, and is the applicant in a pending application for consent to acquire the license of television station WRTV, also in the Indianapolis market. CCB’s interests and those of viewers in the market, as well as the interests of advertisers and MVPDs, would be adversely affected by the grant of these applications.”
Circle City also stressed that the deal would not be in the public interest because it hurt other local outlets and reduce local news. “The proposed combination would give Nexstar a near-monopoly over local television advertising revenue, retransmission consent revenue, program acquisition, and local news production in the Indianapolis market,” the CCB filing concluded. “It would, in all likelihood, force CCB to reduce or eliminate its own local news operations, if not shut down entirely.”
