The Federal Communications Commission has signed off on broadcast station owner Nexstar’s $6.2 billion deal to acquire rival company Tegna, a merger that would create the largest operator of local television stations in the country.
In a news release Thursday, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said the agency waived a rule that bars a single company from owning TV stations reaching more than 39% of U.S. households. The combined entity would cover at least 60%.
“Waiving that rule here is consistent with longstanding FCC authorities and doing so promotes the underlying purpose of the FCC’s media regulations by promoting competition, localism, and diversity,” Carr said in a statement.
The FCC’s announcement came less than a day after a coalition of attorneys general for eight states, including California and New York, filed a lawsuit seeking to block the merger, arguing that the tie-up violates federal antitrust law.
Nexstar also secured regulatory approval from the Department of Justice. The Justice Department’s antitrust division shortened the standard 30-day waiting period and then notified the broadcast companies, a department spokesman confirmed.
“This transaction is essential to sustaining strong local journalism in the communities we serve,” Sook said in a statement, adding that Nexstar will be a “stronger, more dynamic enterprise” after the two companies are brought together.
“We are grateful to President Trump, Chairman Carr, and the DOJ for recognizing the dynamic forces shaping the media landscape and enabling this transaction to move forward,” Sook said.
Carr was appointed to chair the FCC at the start of President Donald Trump’s second term. He previously served as one of the agency’s commissioners.
Anna M. Gomez, the lone Democrat on the FCC, blasted the agency’s decision to sign off on the Nexstar-Tegna deal, criticizing what she characterized as a lack of transparency around the approval process.
“The FCC has once again chosen bureaucratic cover over public accountability,” Gomez said in a statement. “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.”
In an August news release announcing the Nexstar-Tegna deal, Sook said the Trump administration’s deregulatory policies gave station owners a better shot of competing in a “fragmented and rapidly evolving marketplace” for media brands.
“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,” Sook said at the time.
The National Association of Broadcasters, a trade group that has urged the FCC to alter the 39% rule, said the waiver granted to Nexstar was a “meaningful sign that the Commission understands the urgent need for ownership reform.”
“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,” said Curtis LeGeyt, the trade group’s president and chief executive.
In a social media post Thursday, Carr said Nexstar had agreed to “certain concrete conditions” for the deal, “including divesting a number of stations, increasing localism, and affordability steps.” He did not provide specific information about those plans.
When requests for federal approval were sent to the FCC in early December, Nexstar operated 201 stations in 116 television markets while Tegna operated 64 full-power broadcast television stations, an AM radio station and an FM radio station.
Carr’s office previously approved a high-profile merger between Skydance Media and Paramount, the parent company of the Hollywood studio Paramount Pictures and the broadcast network CBS.
Paramount Skydance’s pending takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery is being reviewed by the Justice Department’s antitrust unit, not the FCC.
The FCC, an agency whose appointees serve five-year terms, regulates the broadcast airwaves and other key telecommunications platforms. The agency typically has five commissioners, but there are currently two vacancies.
