Attorney General James Wins Court Order Halting Nexstar-Tegna Merger

NEW YORK – New York Attorney General Letitia James and a coalition of seven other attorneys general today secured a court order halting the merger of Nexstar Media Group (Nexstar) and Tegna, Inc. (Tegna). Attorney General James and the coalition filed a lawsuit on March 19 to block the merger, alleging it would violate federal antitrust law by creating the largest broadcast station group in the country, controlling over 250 local TV stations that reach 80 percent of the country’s population. The United States District Court for the Eastern District of California today granted a motion for a preliminary injunction, preventing Nexstar and Tegna from combining their assets.

“Consolidating hundreds of local TV stations under one corporate owner would mean higher prices and lower quality programming for consumers,” said Attorney General James. “Nexstar’s merger with Tegna illegally eliminates competition, and today we won a critical victory in our effort to enforce the law and stop this merger from moving forward. We will keep fighting our case to ensure fair competition among local TV stations that serve communities across the country.”

Nexstar is currently the country’s largest local television broadcasting group, controlling more than 200 stations in 116 U.S. markets reaching 220 million people. Tegna is the nation’s fourth-largest broadcasting group, controlling 64 television stations in 51 different media markets. If the merger is completed, 31 media markets across the country where Nexstar and Tegna each own competing stations – including Buffalo, New York – would see diminished competition.

Attorney General James and the coalition argue in their lawsuit that the Nexstar-Tegna merger would significantly eliminate competition among local affiliates of the “Big Four” networks – ABC, CBS, NBC, and FOX. Nexstar’s size would give it unprecedented power to raise fees it charges cable providers to retransmit its stations’ content to their subscribers – fees that would be passed on to consumers in the form of higher cable bills. Nexstar could also black out channels for providers that refuse to pay higher fees, depriving consumers of channels they rely on for news, sports, and primetime coverage.

The lawsuit also alleges that the merger would degrade the quality of local news, as Nexstar would likely eliminate newsrooms in media markets where it owns multiple stations. Newsroom consolidation and Nexstar’s notorious practice of airing identical programming across local news channels would eliminate the diverse perspectives that viewers count on to stay informed.

The court previously granted a motion for a temporary restraining order filed by DirecTV in a separate lawsuit. That case has been combined with the lawsuit filed by the states. The United States District Court for the Eastern District of California today granted Attorney General James and the coalition’s motion for a preliminary injunction, preventing Nexstar and Tegna from integrating and consolidating their assets as part of the merger.

Joining Attorney General James in filing this lawsuit are the attorneys general of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, North Carolina, Oregon, and Virginia. 

For New York, this matter was handled by Assistant Attorney General Morgan Feder and OAG Fellow Jaya Mantovani, under the supervision of Deputy Bureau Chief Amy McFarlane and Bureau Chief Elinor Hoffmann, all of the Antitrust Bureau. Data Analyst Valery Tarco and Senior Data Scientist Jasmine McAllister of the Research and Analytics Department also assisted in this matter. The Antitrust Bureau is a part of the Division of Economic Justice, which is led by Chief Deputy Attorney General Chris D’Angelo and overseen by First Deputy Attorney General Jennifer Levy.