FCC approves Nexstar’s purchase of Tegna, creating broadcast giant hours after lawsuits sought to block deal

The Federal Communication Commission announced Thursday evening that it had approved the $6.2 billion merger of major broadcast station owners Nexstar and Tegna. The move came on the same day that attorneys general in eight states and DirecTV filed separate lawsuits seeking to block the deal, arguing that it will lead to higher prices for consumers and stifle local journalism.

The FCC said in a statement announcing its approval that Nexstar’s acquisition of Tegna will “enable these broadcast TV stations to counter the growing power that national programmers have amassed in recent years.”

With the deal, Nexstar will still own less than 15% of television stations in the U.S., the FCC said.

In a lengthy social media post marking the approval, FCC Chair Brendan Carr said that Nexstar had agreed to “certain concrete conditions” as part of the deal, including “divesting a number of stations, increasing localism, and affordability steps.”

In its own statement, Nexstar said that the “transaction is essential to sustaining strong local journalism in the communities we serve,” with a company spokesperson adding in an email to CBS News that it would “let the press release speak for itself and will not be making any further comment.”

But Anna Gomez, the FCC’s only Democratic commissioner, blasted the approval, saying in her own statement that the merger creates a “broadcast behemoth” that violates the FCC’s National Television Ownership rule. Under that rule, A broadcast owner cannot own television stations that collectively reach more than 39% of all U.S. television households. Nexstar had said the deal would give it a reach of 80%.

“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,” Gomez said.

Nexstar had announced last August that it had reached an agreement to buy Tegna for $6.2 billion. The deal will create a company that owns 265 television stations in 40 states and the District of Columbia, most of them local affiliates of ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC.

Nexstar has argued the deal would allow it to compete more effectively with richer legacy media companies and Big Tech.

But in Thursday’s lawsuit by the states, filed with the U.S. District Court in Sacramento, California, the eight Democratic attorneys general argued that it would come with a price. The action was filed by the top lawyers in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, New York, North Carolina, Oregon and Virginia. DirecTV filed a separate case in the same court.

“If this merger moves forward, cable prices will spike for consumers in New York and across the country,” said Letitia James, New York attorney general, on Thursday.

“Nexstar’s purpose in acquiring Tegna is to drive up the price it can extract from DirecTV and other distributors, which will force them to raise prices to their subscribers,” DirectTV said in a statement.

CBS News has reached out to the FCC for comment on the lawsuits. 

The state lawyers argued the merger would run afoul of federal laws designed to protect against monopolies. It would also require a change in federal rules that limit how many stations that one company can own, although Carr has advocated for loosening those restrictions.

The merger was endorsed in February by President Trump, who wrote on social media that “we need more competition against THE ENEMY, the Fake News National TV Networks.”

Nexstar flexed its muscles last fall in ordering its ABC stations to yank late-night host Jimmy Kimmel following comments he made about assassinated Republican activist Charlie Kirk, briefly leading to Kimmel’s suspension by Disney. But ABC brought Kimmel back following public outcry, and Nexstar backed down.

Given Nexstar’s tendency to consolidate newsrooms in communities where it owns more than one station, both lawsuits expressed concern that the merger would hurt the already-struggling local news business. There are 31 markets across the country where Nexstar and Tegna own at least one station, according to the lawsuit.

“We all benefit when local newsrooms compete to get stories,” James said.

The attorneys general said they were open to having other states support their actions — even those whose chief legal officials are Republicans.