Thwarted today in what looked to be a Donald Trump approved $6.2 billion local station mega-deal to merge with Tegna, Nexstar are vowing to march forward in the courts. At the same time, New York’s Attorney General Letitia James, one of the leading advocates to stop the Nexstar-Tegna combo, is promising to continue to stop the merger from becoming a reality.
“This transaction closed more than four weeks ago following receipt of all required regulatory approvals from the Federal Communications Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice,” the company declared Friday evening after a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction blocking the March 19 Trump FCC greenlite deal. Everything is on hold now until an antitrust trial concludes. “Nexstar Media Group now owns TEGNA and has taken steps consistent with the Court order that has been in effect.”
Nexstar Friday made its own argument for the merger again in the rest of its response statement and officially announced they will be appealing the order.
“For nearly thirty years, Nexstar has provided free over-the-air access to all its broadcast stations — local news, weather, and community-focused programming alongside major network programming,” the Irving, Texas-based media operation, the largest local TV station group in America, noted. “This pro-competitive transaction will make local stations stronger and support continued investment in local journalism and fact-based news.”
“We will appeal today’s decision and look forward to presenting our case on its merits before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.”
Nexstar is buying Tegna for $6.2 billion TV station deal
Nexstar; Tegna; Getty Images
Perhaps, but U.S. District Judge Troy Nunley also made it crystal clear in his dense ruling tonight that in the meantime it ain’t going to be business as usual the way Nexstar want it to be.
The 52-page document lays out precisely that “Defendants shall take all steps necessary to ensure that (a) the local television broadcast stations owned by TEGNA immediately prior to the Transaction (the “Acquired Stations”) will be maintained and operated as independent, ongoing, economically viable, and active competitors in the business of licensing retransmission.”
Friday’s preliminary injunction, which does’t override the current TRO until April 21, also notes, among various guardrails for the 200 stations Nexstar owns and the approximately 64 stations nationwide that Tegna own “the books, records, competitively sensitive sales, marketing and pricing information, and decision making concerning the production, distribution, provision, or sale of products or services by or under any of the Acquired Stations will be kept separate and apart from all other stations owned by Nexstar immediately prior to the Transaction and any of Nexstar’s other operations.”
Consolidating hundreds of local TV stations under one corporate owner would mean higher prices and lower quality programming for consumers,” said Empire State AG James on Friday after Judge Nunley’s much anticipated and expected decision appeared in the federal docket.
“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,” James added, echoing words of her California colleague and fellow plaintiff Rob Bonta. “We will keep fighting our case to ensure fair competition among local TV stations that serve communities across the country.”
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