Nexstar, FCC confirm $6bn Tegna deal complete after states sue to stop merger
Nexstar Media Group’s US$6.2bn acquisition of fellow US station group Tegna has closed after receiving regulatory approval from the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the Department of Justice (DoJ).
Perry Sook, Nexstar’s founder, chairman and CEO, said the deal was “essential to sustaining strong local journalism in the communities we serve” and that it would make the company “a stronger, more dynamic enterprise – better positioned to deliver exceptional journalism and local programming with enhanced assets, capabilities and talent.”
The statement about the completion came just 24 hours after eight US states, New York, California, Colorado, Illinois, Oregon, North Carolina, Connecticut and Virginia, sued to block it.
In separate statements, California’s attorney general Rob Bonta and New York attorney general Letitia James both claimed the transaction was “illegal,” anti-competitive and would push pay TV subscription costs up, as well as shrinking the local journalism sectors in their states.
“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,” said Bonta.
Separately, DirecTV sued to block the deal this week, alleging it would enable Nexstar to hike prices for pay TV companies to retransmit the merged entity’s channels. DirecTV also said approval of the deal would mean Nexstar closed local newsrooms in “dozens” of markets.
It is unclear whether the lawsuits, which were filed before Nexstar and the FCC officially announced the completion of the merger, will have any bearing on the situation.
Before the deal, Nexstar controlled more than 200 local stations in 116 markets and reached around 220 million consumers across the US. Tegna, meanwhile, owned more than 60 local stations in 51 markets.
The acquisition, announced in August 2025, creates a legitimate behemoth in US local TV, with around 260 TV stations in 44 states.
As it stands, TV station groups are prohibited from reaching more than 39% of US households. However, the merger has been granted a waiver by the FCC on the grounds that it promotes “competition, localism and diversity” in media. With the addition of Tegna, Nexstar’s reach could grow as high as 80% of US households, according to Bonta and others.
In a statement released late on Thursday, FCC chairman Brendan Carr said Nexstar had committed to divesting six stations across six designed markets.
Carr said the decision to approve the deal is “focused on empowering broadcast TV stations to serve their local communities, consistent with their public interest obligations.”
The FCC head previously said he supported the transaction, while president Donald Trump also threw his weight behind it last month, saying it would help in his fight against “the Fake News National TV Networks.”
Last month, Trump wrote of the deal: “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.”
In his statement, Nexstar’s Sook thanked Trump, Carr and the DoJ for “recognising the dynamic forces shaping the media landscape and enabling this transaction to move forward.”
