The initiatives being pursued by the Trump administration offer local broadcasters the opportunity to expand reach, level the playing field and compete more effectively with the Big Tech and legacy Big Media companies that have unchecked reach and vast financial resources.”

Nexstar Chief Executive Perry Sook

DENVER - On August 19, 2025, it was announced that Nexstar Media Group has entered into the process of acquiring TEGNA for $6.2 billion, a consolidation of 64 television stations, which would push Nexstar into owning 265 stations across 44 states and the nation’s capital, entering monopoly status by controlling the media that 80% of U.S. households consumes.

The acquisition, if approved by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), would place Nexstar 41% over the Commission’s current capped limit for coverage of U.S. households. However, the FCC’s newest chairman, Brendan Carr, appointed by President Donald J. Trump in 2017, has been hard at work attempting to eliminate that cap.    

The FCC released a public notice on June 18, 2025, officially reopening the comment window for a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM)—originally adopted in 2017—which addresses an assessment of the National Television Multiple Ownership Rule.  

By reopening the comment window, the FCC hopes to gather new data and feedback to support their recommendation whether to raise or eliminate the national cap, as it is their determination that so-called legacy media companies require looser restrictions in order to compete with the major tech giants.

“Are there changes in the video programming marketplace that would affect the Commission's prior conclusions about the national audience reach cap?” This is one of the questions framed in the June public noticefrom which the FCC hopes to gather data and feedback.

“In the NPRM, the Commission discussed economies of scale made possible by expansion of station ownership that may help broadcast television remain competitive in the marketplace and deter the migration of expensive over-the-air programming to other video programming distributors.

“The Commission also reasoned that, by placing limits on the expansion of network owned and operated station groups, a national cap would preserve a balance in the marketplace between the networks and their local affiliates. Do these prior conclusions remain accurate in 2025, and can they be expected to remain valid going forward?”

The cap was set at 39% when Congress passed a spending bill, the Consolidated Appropriations Act, in 2004. The FCC then was lobbying for a 10% increase to the cap, landing at 45%, which Congress felt was egregious and a danger to local news providers.

The 39% compromise allowed media conglomerates Viacom and News Corporation to keep many of their stations, as they had both edged their national media control up to 38% in anticipation of a cap increase.

The passing of the spending bill also relieved the FCC of the power to raise the cap at their own discretion, giving that power to Congress instead. 

Chairman Carr’s focus on the national cap is part of his overall plan for the FCC, which he outlined in the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 Report.

Though a major portion of Carr’s chapter in the report focuses on “threats to individual liberty posed by corporations that are abusing dominant positions in the market,” the aim of his ire seems strictly to be “Big Tech” and perceived national security risks rising in China.

Meanwhile, he maintained that restrictions on legacy media companies should be lifted so they can be given a second wind to remain competitive.

As far as how competitive that should be, Nexstar’s official TEGNA Acquisition Deck boasts that the acquisition will propel them to earning more than $8 billion in revenue in 2026 as the first conglomerate to “materially benefit from expected changes in the regulatory framework.”

Nexstar Chief Executive Perry Sook praised those anticipated changes to the framework in an official statement.

“The initiatives being pursued by the Trump administration offer local broadcasters the opportunity to expand reach, level the playing field and compete more effectively with the Big Tech and legacy Big Media companies that have unchecked reach and vast financial resources,” Sook said.

Nexstar also states that the acquisition will increase their presence in “contested election markets” in Phoenix, Arizona; Atlanta, Georgia; Toledo, Ohio; and Portland, Maine. 

Since 2017, Nexstar has seen a significant rise in their national coverage through first acquiring a legacy company from 1887, Media General Inc.

Over almost a full decade, Nexstar has assimilated The Hill, the CW network, and in 2019 closed a $4.1 billion deal to acquire Tribune Media, swallowing up another 42 television stations. 

While the Nexstar-Tribune merger was not seen to be as controversial as the failed Sinclair-Tribune merger that was attempted earlier, Nexstar was still on the hook with the FCC and the Department of Justice for illegal duopolies in five different markets across the country, as both Nexstar and Tribune owned the “top four” earning stations in those markets. 

As a result, Nexstar had to divest 21 television stations and sell them for a total of $1.32 billion to other companies, with 11 of those stations being sold to TEGNA for $740 million.

Chairman Carr and the FCC are working to remove those regulations that had caused such extreme divestment in local news affiliates back in 2019, resulting in closures, consolidations, and mass layoffs.

However, Nexstar’s acquisition of TEGNA may still be plagued by those very same concerns, considering that the two companies currently overlap in over 35 markets nationally.

According to their acquisition deck, Nexstar expects an estimated “$300 million of annual net synergies to be achieved from a combination of revenue synergies and net operating expense reductions,” which financial experts are interpreting to mean budget cuts and future layoffs.  

Despite Nexstar promoting the acquisition as a way to preserve “high quality local journalism and diversity of opinion,” those opposed to the acquisition, including Colorado Senator Michael Bennet and Denver Mayor Mike Johnston, believe that Nexstar’s commitment to “synergy,” “profitability,” and to its shareholders will ultimately trump their dedication to local voices and civic responsibility. 

The ripple effects of this acquisition will be felt in states across the country, as Nexstar’s reach is being set to break federal confines through nuanced exceptions to the Top Four Prohibition rule in some states.

Additionally, in July the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit gave the FCC 90 days to either justify the Top Four Prohibition rule or to let it expire entirely. 

As for how the acquisition will affect Colorado: if approved, Nexstar will acquire the NBC affiliate KUSA, known as 9News, in Denver, along with the MyNetworkTV affiliate KTVD. Nexstar currently owns KDVR, otherwise known as FOX31, as well as the Fox affiliate KXRM out of Colorado Springs, and the CBS affiliate KREX out of Grand Junction. 

TEGNA currently owns the most NBC-affiliated television stations and the fourth most ABC affiliates; on Sunday, August 24, 2025, President Trump posted on his social media platform Truth Social about those two networks.

“Why is it that ABC and NBC FAKE NEWS, two of the absolute worst and most biased networks anywhere in the World, aren’t paying Millions of Dollars a year in LICENSE FEES,” Trump wrote.

“They should lose their Licenses for their unfair coverage of Republicans and/or Conservatives, but at a minimum, they should pay up BIG for having the privilege of using the most valuable airwaves anywhere at anytime!!! Crooked ‘journalism’ should not be rewarded, it should be terminated!!!”

Trump stated that 97% of the stories about him reported on ABC and NBC networks are purposefully negative, or “BAD STORIES,” as the President wrote. 

At Trump’s behest Chairman Carr has aimed the FCC at all the major networks, except for FOX, and has launched formal reviews into their practices, including their journalistic operations, as well as opening investigations into the networks’ parent companies’ diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies.

Additionally, Carr has publicly supported Trump’s lawsuits against many of the major networks, including against ABC News and parent company Disney, which yielded Trump a $15 million settlement, and his suit against CBS News and Paramount, which resulted in a $16 million settlement.

The settlement from Paramount, along with the cutting of some of their DEI policies (and the termination of famously anti-Trump Stephen Colbert’s show), came just as their $8 billion merger with Skydance Corporation was requiring approval by the FCC.

Following the settlement and the FCC’s approval of the Skydance-Paramount merger in July of this year, President Trump gloated that he would be receiving an additional $20 million from Skydance in advertising and PSAs.

Also included in this alleged deal between Trump and Skydance in exchange for FCC approval is a commitment by the media conglomerate to eliminate bias against Republicans and the Trump Administration in their reporting, and to hire staff for the purpose of seeking out the “politicization” of social issues in their media. 

On August 21, 2025, Energy and Commerce Committee Ranking Member Frank Pallone, Jr. and Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Jamie Raskin demanded information regarding the Skydance-Paramount merger and any list of conditions from the FCC and/or the Trump Administration establishing a deal in exchange for federal approval of the merger.

Paramount Skydance Corporation CEO David Ellison was given until September 3 to provide the answers to the House Democrats’ questions. 

In regard to Nexstar’s pending acquisition of TEGNA, Nexstar has committed financing from Bank of America Securities, J.P. Morgan Chase Bank N.A., and Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC, and plans to finance the transaction with “a combination of new financing, cash on hand, cash generated between signing and closing, and revolver borrowing capacity.”

Currently the acquisition is expected to close by the fall of 2026.