Usually — and these are unusual times — when media companies buy and sell each other, the paperwork they file with the Federal Communications Commission reads more like a legal brief: dry, technical and anchored in facts and statistics meant to justify the transfer of broadcast licenses.
That’s why Nexstar’s filing with the FCC this week is noteworthy. Nexstar chair and CEO Perry Sook went out of his way to praise President Donald Trump while asking regulators to approve a $6.2 billion deal to buy rival Tegna. The merger would make Nexstar by far the country’s biggest owner of local TV stations and would require the government to relax long-standing rules limiting station ownership. And Nexstar is pushing the FCC to move quickly, something the agency rarely does.
The application, filed Tuesday, includes multiple nods to the president and the GOP-controlled commission:
Nexstar’s acquisition of Tegna is vitally important to the future of local television and local journalism. We are grateful that the Trump administration and the FCC recognize that the current television ownership regulations are outdated and do not reflect the competitive media landscape as it has evolved over the past 25+ years. Like the Trump administration, we are focused on achieving deregulation, and we continue to advocate for the elimination of the antiquated constraints on local television ownership as the best solution to level the competitive playing field for all media.
Nexstar’s filing also adopts buzzword language that Trump often uses:
To be clear, in an age of disinformation and political agendas, we are the anti-fake news. Our news is delivered by trusted, familiar voices — journalists who live in the community — not a chat-bot or social media influencers. And yet, we are prohibited from broadcasting trusted local news and programming to hundreds of communities across the country because of antiquated regulatory constraints.
To achieve fast approval, Nexstar is asking the usually slow-moving FCC to bypass “major barriers that prevent us from competing fairly including with legacy media and Big Tech.” That is legal-speak for a request to waive or eliminate the ownership cap that bars any owner from reaching more than 39% of U.S. households.
Nexstar is already at the 39% threshold. Adding 64 Tegna stations in 51 markets would grow its portfolio to 265 stations and push its reach to almost 55% of U.S. homes. Previous FCC commissions have taken months, even years, to sort through the implications of multiple station ownership in a single market.
Sook said approval is “absolutely crucial” and “urgently needed.” The filing added, “Despite Nexstar’s and Tegna’s positions as industry leaders, both are susceptible to intense market forces conspiring against their ability to sustain operations at their current level.”
The Nexstar-Tegna proposal arrives as another major broadcaster, Sinclair Broadcasting, makes a move of its own. Earlier this week, the Trump-friendly company purchased 8% of rival E.W. Scripps, signaling interest in a future merger. Scripps responded coldly to the unsolicited investment but did not shut the door to entertaining a better deal. Like Nexstar, Sinclair’s hopes also ride on the FCC lifting the ownership cap.
In recent statements to shareholders, leaders at both companies have suggested they believe the FCC may relax ownership limits in early 2026.
Editor’s note: The normally reliable FCC website had not posted Nexstar’s filing as of publication, with updates delayed by the government shutdown. We will add a link once the FCC makes the document available.
