Media Ownership and Antitrust

The FCC has approved Nexstar’s $6.2 billion acquisition of Tegna, saying the combined group will still own under 15% of U.S. TV stations and imposing conditions including divestitures and steps on localism and affordability, with Nexstar arguing the deal is essential to sustain local journalism and help broadcasters counter national programmers. Democratic Commissioner Anna Gomez blasted the approval as creating a “broadcast behemoth” that violates ownership rules and was done “behind closed doors,” while eight Democratic state attorneys general and DirecTV filed separate lawsuits the same day seeking to block the merger on antitrust and retransmission-fee grounds.