{"id":141978,"date":"2025-11-18T23:20:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-18T23:20:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/141978\/"},"modified":"2025-11-18T23:20:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-18T23:20:07","slug":"nexstar-makes-case-to-fcc-for-tegna-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/141978\/","title":{"rendered":"Nexstar Makes Case to FCC for Tegna Deal"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tThe local TV station giant Nexstar<\/a> has officially asked the FCC<\/a> to approve the transfer of broadcast licenses controlled by Tegna<\/a>, a key part of its proposed $6.2 billion takeover<\/a> that would make it by far the largest owner of TV stations in the U.S.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe FCC is currently going through a rulemaking process that could see it raise the cap on how many stations a company can own, but Nexstar has asked for a waiver, a move that could help speed up the process.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn a statement Tuesday, Nexstar CEO Perry Sook framed the deal as being important to the future of news.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cTo be clear, in an age of disinformation and political agendas, we are the anti-fake news,\u201d Sook said. \u201cOur news is delivered by trusted, familiar voices \u2014 journalists who live in the community \u2014 not a chatbot 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. In an era where political discourse has turned increasingly polarized and violent, our democracy requires that Americans have easy access to reliable fact-based journalism and community forums to debate the issues of the day safely and respectfully.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cNexstar\u2019s acquisition of TEGNA will provide us with the scale necessary for local journalism to thrive amidst a media landscape that is dominated by Big Tech and the legacy media companies, enabling us to continue not only investing in high-quality journalism and local news, but in serving our local communities in the best possible way,\u201d Sook continued.<\/p>\n

\n\tNexstar and Tegna are framing the deal as a dire one, with competition from Big Tech companies like Google and Amazon, who are hoovering up ad dollars, as well as from traditional media companies who have global ambitions of their own. The companies frame the current moment as a \u201ccrisis\u201d warranting immediate action by the FCC.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cSteep competition from tech platforms has engendered a crisis even for broadcasters considered to be well-positioned,\u201d Nexstar writes in its filing. \u201cThe Transaction will provide the combined Nexstar with economies of scale and the reach needed to successfully compete with giants like Alphabet (Google, YouTube, YouTubeTV), Amazon (Amazon Ads, Prime Video, Twitch), Apple (AppleTV), Comcast (Peacock), Disney (Disney+, Hulu, ESPN, Fubo), Meta (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp), Netflix, Paramount (Paramount+, Pluto TV), TikTok, and Warner Bros. Discovery (HBO Max), all of which are unshackled in their ability to reach a national audience. These conglomerates increasingly siphon revenue away from broadcast stations for the benefit of their national and global digital platforms and affiliated streaming services, rendering Nexstar and TEGNA unable to compete and maintain the same level of investment in the essential local content upon which their communities rely.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cEvaluation of the Transaction should not be skewed by false narratives whose foundation relies on wishful thinking about yesteryear, or the misconception that local broadcast television today is a business in which it is commonplace for individually-owned stations to successfully compete and derive the wherewithal to invest in diverse, local programming and innovation,\u201d the filing continues. \u201cA determination as to whether or not the public interest is served by grant of the Applications should be based in reality\u2014Nexstar and TEGNA must combine if their local stations\u2019 critical role in our nation\u2019s information ecosystem is to be preserved. Time is of the essence.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The local TV station giant Nexstar has officially asked the FCC to approve the transfer of broadcast licenses…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":141979,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[156,28397,111,139,43683,69,43686,437],"class_list":{"0":"post-141978","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-fcc","10":"tag-new-zealand","11":"tag-newzealand","12":"tag-nexstar","13":"tag-nz","14":"tag-tegna","15":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141978","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=141978"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141978\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/141979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=141978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=141978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=141978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}