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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowNexstar Media Group is buying broadcast rival Tegna for $6.2 billion, which will help strengthen its local news offerings, the company announced Tuesday.
Nexstar is the parent of Indianapolis Fox affiliate WXIN-TV Channel 59 and CBS affiliate WTTV-TV Channel 4. Tegna is owner of Indianapolis NBC affiliate WTHR-TV Channel 13 and low-powered digital sister station WALV-CD Channel 46, a MeTV affiliate.
The transaction, if approved, will bring together two major players in U.S. television and the country’s local news landscape. Nexstar oversees more than 200 owned and partner stations in 116 markets nationwide today and also runs networks like The CW and NewsNation. Meanwhile, Tegna owns 64 news stations across 51 markets.
“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 Chairman and CEO Perry Sook said in a statement on Tuesday. “We believe Tegna represents the best option for Nexstar to act on this opportunity.”
Nexstar said Tuesday that the deal will also help it give advertisers a bigger variety of local and national broadcast and digital advertising options.
Nexstar will pay $22 in cash for each share of Tegna’s outstanding stock.
The deal could potentially help kick off even further consolidation in America’s broadcast industry. Nexstar, founded in 1996, has itself grow substantially with acquisitions over the latest two decades, becoming the biggest operator of local TV stations in the U.S. after it purchased Tribune Media for $4.1 billion in 2019.
As part of the Tribune Media purchase, Nexstar acquired WXIN and WTTV, but was forced under regulatory requirements to sell WISH-TV Channel 8 and WNDY-TV Channel 23 in Indianapolis to Circle City Broadcasting LLC for $42.5 million.
WTHR and WALV were acquired by Tegna in 2019 from former owner Dispatch Broadcast Group as part of a larger multi-station deal. Dispatch had owned WTHR since 1975.
Nexstar’s purchase of Tegna also arrives amid wider regulatory shifts. Brendan Carr, the Trump-appointed chairman the Federal Communications Commission, which will need to give the transaction the green light, has long advocated for loosening industry restrictions. On Aug. 7, the FCC announced that it would be repealing 98 broadcast rules and requirements that it identified as “obsolete, outdated, or unnecessary.”
Some of those rules date back nearly 50 years, the FCC said, and apply to “old technology that is no longer used.” Carr maintained that such provisions no longer serve public interest.
In late July, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit also vacated the FCC’s “top four” rule, which has long prohibited ownership of more than one of the top four stations in a single market. The ruling is still subject to a monthslong assessment by the FCC, but could significantly clear the way for future mergers in the industry.
In company earnings calls held in early August, before Tegna and Nexstar publicly confirmed merger talks, both Tegna CEO Michael Steib and Nexstar’s Sook pointed directly to this ruling, and applauded Carr’s deregulation agenda as a whole.
“We believe that deregulation is necessary, important and coming,” Steib said in Tegna’s Aug. 7 call, noting that local broadcasters are “up against big tech competitors who have absolutely no encumbrances in how they compete.”
Beyond their core broadcast TV businesses, both Nexstar and Tegna also boast digital news, mobile app and streaming offerings, all of which have played key roles for the industry as consumers change the way they consume news and other entertainment.
Broadcast TV has been hit particularly hard by “cord-cutting,” with more and more households trading their cable or satellite subscriptions into content they can get via the internet.
The deal is expected to close by the second half of 2026. It still needs approval from Tegna shareholders.
Shares of Nexstar jumped 7.6% in premarket trading, and Tegna’s rose 4.3%.
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I understand how consolidation is good for the few televison station operators who will be left standing when it’s all said and done. But what about the consumer? One company owning the FOX, NBC, and CBS affiliates in this market means we essentially have one voice (two if you count Scripps, owner of the ABC affiliate) providing us with local news. Not good.
NOT GOOD is an understatement ! Consecrated media power is dangerous for democracy .
+1
Tegna was far left leaning correct? I’m just hoping that there’s a day that we can get back to just reporting the news rather than trying to sway the narrative.
Unfortunately we’ll see more reporters and anchors moving and leaving, and/or reduced. And more forced narratives coming down to local stations over time, with more generic and same subject news.
If only they all could get consistent and accessible game programming for Pacers and Fever.
Good as long as they remain neutral and report fairly. Experience shows how liberal the media has become and always dogging Trump who has done a magnificent job compared to Biden. Please report this as it is a fact!
Facts tend to have a liberal bias, so with accurate reporting it’s almost impossible NOT to make known liar look bed.
I’ve been calling this the ‘pacman’ syndrome for years. Bad. Bad. Bad. In the 70’s the FCC forced local media owners of more than two outlets to divest. The premise was that they had ‘too much local influence’. As a result, cities all over the country lost newspapers to big corporations as well as great radio and TV operations. In Indianapolis for instance, WFBM (now WRTV) had radio stations that split up. Same with WISH. The daily papers in many instances were simply sucked up by corporate conglomerates like Gannet and others, ie the former ‘great Hoosier daily’ Indianapolis News & Star. The point is this, 2 or 3 national-international conglomerates owning ALL media IS the exact same thing the FCC 50 years ago said it was trying to avoid! Centralized influence. It is far better for everyone, except the mega corporations, to have a number of local owners from coast to coast than what’s happening. George Soros’ holding companies just before Biden left office was permitted to purchase over 200 radio stations in the nation’s biggest markets in the name of consolidation. Can you say ‘Pravda’ or ‘Isvestia’? A common thread as to the decline of daily local papers has been ‘electronic media makes them antiquated’. I suggest that the pages and pages of lost content, the lack of local coverage is the culprit. A few years ago I called the lone Indianapolis daily asking why Indianapolis Indians boxscores were no longer in the scant sports section? The answer: “Corporate hasn’t budgeted for it.” Bernie Herman, Lou Sherman. Joe (Piggot) Pickett, Gene Allison, Jim Wilson, Jim McIntyre, Dave Piontek, Carolyn Churchman at the Ayres Tea Room, Jim Shelton on the Circle with ‘pick a pocket’. You all are missed.