WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Federal Communications Commission approved Nexstar Media Group‘s $6.2 billion acquisition of local TV rival Tegna on Thursday, March 19, according to the agency’s official announcement, creating a combined entity that controls 265 television stations across 44 states and the District of Columbia — making Nexstar the single largest local broadcast operator in US history.
The deal closed faster than many industry observers expected. Within hours of the FCC‘s sign-off, the combined company already covered roughly 60% of US television households — far exceeding the 39% cap that federal rules had previously imposed on any single local broadcaster, a safeguard the commission quietly waived to let the deal go through.
The FCC approval landed the same day that eight state attorneys general and DirecTV filed separate lawsuits in US District Court in Sacramento, California, alleging the merger violates federal antitrust law. Both legal actions argue the deal will suppress competition, silence local journalism, and drive up cable bills for everyday subscribers.
8 States Line Up Against Nexstar-Tegna Merger
The coalition of state attorneys general filing suit includes the chief legal officers of California, New York, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, North Carolina, Oregon, and Virginia — all Democrats. Their joint complaint centers on Section 7 of the Clayton Antitrust Act, which prohibits mergers that substantially lessen competition or tend to create a monopoly.
New York Attorney General Letitia James said bluntly: “This merger forward, prices will rise for consumers.” California Attorney General Rob Bonta warned that consolidating broadcast media under a handful of corporations directly erodes the diversity of voices communities rely on for local oversight.
Documents reviewed by this publication, including the state attorneys’ joint complaint filed in the Eastern District of California, show the lawsuit specifically targets competitive harm in identified local markets — with Bonta‘s office pointing to Sacramento and San Diego, while James‘ office flagged concentration risks in the Buffalo media market. Those are not abstract concerns. In each market, the combined Nexstar-Tegna footprint would eliminate a direct competitor from the local advertising and retransmission fee markets overnight.
FCC Silently Waives a Decades-Old Broadcast Cap
What’s buried beneath the headline approval: the FCC didn’t just say yes — it granted Nexstar an explicit waiver of the 39% household reach cap, a rule designed since the broadcast era to prevent any single company from dominating local airwaves nationally. The newly merged entity now reaches approximately 60% of US TV households.
Official records reviewed by reporters confirm that FCC Chairman Brendan Carr required Nexstar to divest only six stations from its combined portfolio of 265 as a condition of approval. Critics say that barely scratches the surface of the concentration problem.
Anna M. Gomez, the sole Democrat on the three-member FCC panel, did not vote in favor. According to her public statement, the approval was granted behind closed doors — no open proceeding, no full commission vote.
Gomez said the process amounted to “a quiet sign-off meant to avoid public scrutiny,” a characterization Nexstar has not publicly disputed.
Nexstar CEO Thanks Trump Administration Directly
Nexstar Chairman and CEO Perry Sook confirmed the deal closed Thursday after receiving both FCC and DOJ clearance, explicitly thanking President Trump and Chairman Carr by name in a public statement. “By merging these two outstanding companies,” Sook said, “Nexstar will be better equipped to provide exceptional journalism through enhanced resources.” That framing — more resources, better journalism — is precisely what the eight suing states dispute.
Tegna currently operates 64 stations across 51 markets, primarily as local affiliates of ABC, CBS, Fox, and NBC. Nexstar already manages over 200 owned and affiliated stations in 116 markets, plus The CW broadcast network and cable news outlet NewsNation. Combined, the reach is without precedent in US local broadcasting.
What the Fine Print Doesn’t Say
The FCC‘s approval paperwork emphasizes that Nexstar will own less than 15% of all television stations nationally, a figure the agency uses to frame the deal as modest in scope. What that calculation omits: station count is not the same as household reach. Owning 265 stations that reach 60% of US homes carries a qualitatively different market power than raw percentages suggest.
DirecTV‘s separate lawsuit adds a commercial dimension the state suits don’t cover. As a major distributor, DirecTV argues directly that a single broadcaster controlling this volume of local affiliate retransmission rights gains enormous leverage to raise the fees it charges pay-TV providers — costs that flow directly onto subscriber bills. Neither Nexstar nor DirecTV commented publicly on that specific claim as of publication.
The lawsuits now sit in federal court in Sacramento. No hearing date has been set. Nexstar has said the deal is closed and operational; the states have asked the court to unwind it. Whether a federal judge agrees to review a merger the FCC and DOJ already blessed — and whether the Trump administration weighs in — remains an open question. One source familiar with the litigation said, simply, “nobody expected them to close this fast.”
