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A possible outcome could be that the former Tegna stations be separated into a separate holding company and if any consolidation has taken place, it would be up to Nexstar to restore these stations to operational independence. If companies like AT&T can be broken up, so should Nexstar when their market share has gotten too big.

As much as I don't want to deflate any hope in people, the chances are near zero that any court would rule the entire transaction void ab initio and require Nexstar to re-launch Tegna with all its stations. Technically speaking, the transaction itself is not unlawful. What makes this questionable at best is the entire company being bought without immediate and absolute divestures. If the courts bother growing a spine, the best case scenario would be that the courts rule that Nexstar must divest in markets that have conflicts (Knoxville, Charlotte, San Diego, as well as in addition to the markets Nexstar nominally pledged to). Tegna as a company is not coming back. It's in the history books. One can only hope that a suitable buyer would step forward in that scenario to buy the conflicting stations.

They will "divest" to Mission, retaining 95% of the profits. Even with divestitures, that's still 80% coverage, in flagrant violation, more than doubling the maximum coverage.

So, putting aside my dislike of the actual merger itself for a moment. I am deeply disturbed (unfortunately, not surprised) by the 11-hour rush to consummate a deal that seemingly included government officials approving it before a pending lawsuit, of which all parties were aware. If what the NC AG and the CA AG state is true, the states reached out to Nexstar numerous times without a reply. The KUSI program guide, which included CW programming before government approval was announced, would indicate that Nexstar had knowledge well in advance that the DOJ was dropping its investigation and that the FCC was approving it. It would also indicate that Nexstar was working with Tegna on business matters prior to the official close of the deal. Just that alone is a no-no. Two entities that are separate but intend to merge must maintain a firewall of sorts until the deal is approved. This whole thing appears to be a bizarre coordination by a private company and governmental agencies to do an end run around the judiciary and due process.

That is correct. This may end up in the Supreme Court. One possibility is that a Hold Separate order is given until the courts sort it out.

Good faith divestures to another broadcaster that operates network-affiliated stations are a thing of the past. Nexstar is a retransmission revenue company with advertising sales as a side hustle. They want every penny of restransmission cash from 3-4 channels per market, and a consolidated operation with the lowest possible cost. The two year timeline gives time for rules to be rewritten to avoid these stations being divested, or strictly selling the license/transmitter only to a godcaster/spectrum squatter, while keeping the affiliation and programming for a subchannel of a retained station. Or in an absolute worst case (for Nexstar) scenario, Mission gets six additional stations with network affiliations.

This. When you stop to read how Congress went about "setting" the cap, it becomes as clear as mud. This will end up in front of SCOTUS, and they'll go "we have to assume that 'national audience reach' assumed everyone watched broadcast television, but now less than 25% of the population watches broadcast television. There's no way for any owner to reach 39% of the population, because that many people don't watch." It won't matter if people are watching on streaming services or cable, because those aren't regulated by the FCC.

I'll just put my two cents in. The misanthropic read—the honest one—is that this isn’t some grand betrayal of the public trust. It’s a system behaving exactly as designed. Maximize shareholder value, minimize cost, maintain the illusion of service. If local journalism was truly indispensable to the public at scale, it would have found a sustainable model by now. Instead, it survives in pockets—nonprofits, independents, the occasional stubborn newsroom—while the bulk of the industry becomes a content distribution network with a nostalgic costume. So, the Nexstar / Tegna deal isn’t a shocking turning point. It’s just another mile marker on a road we’ve been on for years, decades even. Fewer owners. Thinner newsrooms. Louder branding about “serving communities” paired with quieter layoffs and more syndicated filler. And the punchline? Most people won’t notice. Not really. The broadcasts will still look like news. The graphics will still spin and be flashy (or not). The anchors will still smile with that practiced urgency. The difference—the slow erosion of actual local accountability—doesn’t announce itself. It just… accumulates. Until one day, something really important happens in a town, and there’s nobody left to cover it who actually lives there. But hey—great margins.

WCNC did at 6pm. I didn’t capture the last Tegna end tag for WCNC either but will try to on demand. I guess CW will end up on WATL after all (and KONG in Seattle).

Ah screw that! My local station WXIA is about to end with the new Nexstar endtag!

Realistically, the only undoing of this deal is any reparations of laid off staffers when this deal was ruled illegal, and if it takes down Nexstar, so be it. Nexstar f-ed around.. They'll find out one day.

It makes one wonder how it is that a media company cannot exist unless they literally break the law as currently written (or a thinly veiled "waiver"). Either the law itself needs to be changed in some way or the company is conducting itself in a manner that is predatory and inherently illegal. I think the answer is clearly the latter. Last time I checked, companies not constantly looking to buy up smaller ones seem to be running well on average. Hearst comes to mind as a great example. Companies that are not being run well is usually the fault of poor management that leads to bad decisions and outcomes - not market conditions. Is there a decline in TV? Absolutely. But consolidation does nothing but pour gasoline on the trend away from linear TV. It fosters more mistrust by the public. As it currently stands, a small business owner cannot simply just launch or buy a station - except very rarely. Why? Not because TV is actually unprofitable. Nexstar or a similar sized company will stop at nothing to block out any small competitor. If you own all but one viable station in a given market, the huge disproportionate market share means that the small contender will face untold opposition just to exist. And even the best sales team will have a tough time trying to sell spots to clients for a station that only gets 20-30% of the market share. Any business looking to advertise is going to go to the one that has the larger reach that offer prices deliberately priced low to put further pressure on its competition. This is a wake-up call to all that the decades long trend of weakened ownership rules needs to be seriously addressed. Markets in general should be filled with small business owners (single market contenders). Indeed, the trend of meteorologists successfully moving toward independent streaming is a sign that people do not want more corporate control of the media they consume. People want trustworthy media that is responsive and accountable to its audience - and most usually only a company with true local ties to the market is going to care.

There's a good deal of extremely wishful thinking about courts undoing things, divestitures, etc. For the sake of the good people panicking about whether or not they will have a job when the dust settles, I pray to God you are all correct and some Hail Mary materializes. However, the reality of those Christmas wishes coming true is probably slim to none, and slim has left the building. Who else was lining up with a serious offer to buy out TEGNA? Should Denver, and Portland, and St. Louis have the mega-opolys that they now will? I don't think so. However, this has been a snowball effect of exceptions. There are more companies getting out of the business than into it. It sucks, but its reality. Revenue keeps going down, and it's becoming downright near impossible to operate as an independent owner. The quote that Chuck Peters of Gazette said when they sold KCRG to Gray for $100 Million: "we realized that we did all we could as a single television station with the business...". Indeed, as the big get bigger, the little guy sold out while the getting was good. It's really hard to say no to a big pay day when you were getting really good at barely getting by. I know that many have enjoyed blaming Evil Orange Man for all of this, and the current administration is owed their fair share of the blame; but the buildup to a sale like Tegna has been percolating for some time. Companies were allowed to buy market competitors in the 2000's using failing station waivers or used LMA's to operate and control other newsrooms. Precedent was set. Exception after exception after exception was made through many Presidential administrations, FCC boards, and DOJs. Sure some raised opposition, sounded a cautionary alarm, but what did that do? Not a darned thing. Perhaps more so than wishing for a miracle in the courts, wish for a time machine to stop the snowball from becoming an avalanche.

If the lawsuits are successful and the court rules Nexstar must divest all former Tegna stations (perhaps to a trust to be sold in a group or individually), then those markets would be included. Basically the ruling undoes the merger, regardless if any duopolois, or triopolies were created. If the ruling applies only to markets where Nexstar doesn't currently operate then they are lost, but I would think the issue is undo the merger, not be selective about it. But how the AGs and DirecTV proceed, will be telling. Their claim is not just the multiple station ownership in markets, but the size of Nexstar itself and how it can screw others including networks. First step is what modifications the AGs make in their suit, and the opening briefs. Nexstar will of course claim the lawsuits should be thrown out. Hopefully this won't be before trump loyal judges like Aileen Cannon.

This could not be sitting well with some of the networks... It's only a matter of time before one of them pulls the plug because they're not comfortable with a company that can potentially control one or more of their competitors in a market. Just another way to hasten the demise of broadcast television...

As someone who considers MS NOW the only credible source for television news in America but at the same time was very upset by the first wave of changes resulting in the cancellation of The Reidout, Alex Wagner Tonight, and The Katie Phang Show, I support most of the changes here. The less Morning Joe the better. This show should never have been 4 hours. I never watch the program and being on the west coast it's easy to ignore, but 4 hours of any show is overkill. Moving Stephanie Ruhle back to mornings make sense as she was never a good fit for The 11th Hour. Ratings for the show have collapsed with her as host and she just didn't fit as a lead-out of the left wing opinions in primetime. Ali Velshi is a much better fit for the program. Alicia Menendez deserves her own show and she was being wasted on The Weeknight. She is great at subbing for Nicolle Wallace and I think this is a great way to get people who watch Deadline White House but currently ignore MS NOW daytime to tune in earlier. Jacob Soboroff is fantastic and it's about time he had his own show on the network. Being a weekend show still allows for him to do reporting during the week which is also bonus More Chris Hayes the better. I feel like the network has unfairly diminished his role at the network and under promoted his show. They have put so much focus on launching and promoting other shows while not giving him and All In the attention it deserves. I don't understand why Katy Tur remains as anchor on this network. She doesn't fit in at all. If anything she should have moved to reporting with Chris Jansing remaining as anchor. Katy Tur is horrible as anchor but was actually good when she was a reporter on the campaign trail. In my view it makes more sense to keep Chris Jansing as anchor as she is good at covering breaking news, something that is needed for a 24 hour news channel. She manages cover news without upsetting the left wing audience, Richard Lui is another anchor who is great at covering breaking news and is being under underutilized by the network I still don't think Rebecca Kutler is the right fit to lead this network. The network should be thriving but instead comes off as unprepared and muted to what is actually happening and seems too concerned about criticism from the right. At times the network appears desperate to focus on small failures of Trump and trying to look for positives when I think most of the audience wants a more serious and somber take of what's happening. Katie Phang & Joy Reid's youtube shows are drastically better than anything this network is putting out.

The person who runs the Studio 31 Media Archives account on YouTube has posted their reaction:

Congress will not be doing that. Republicans do not have the numbers to pass legislation. I hope the Democrats hall Perry Sook, Carr and Bondi in front of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee and House Energy and Commerce Committee to grill these motherfuckers.

Well, crap. There are a bunch of markets that will go from four separately-owned news-producing stations to three (such as Portland, OR, and here in CT), but there are also some that will go from three separately-owned to two (Sacramento, possibly Hampton Roads). Not good. And probably too late for Jimmy Kimmel to comment on it before the weekend, too. Currently, three of those (WTHR, WAVY, and KNWA) are NBC affiliates. How much do you want to bet those affiliations are going to get moved to subchannels of stations Nexstar's keeping? (If I ran NBC, I'd be informing them the affiliations are staying with those stations, thank you very much.)

I'm genuinely finding it surreal that the deal was both approved and closed at the same time, for a deal as large as this. Did I miss where the FCC actually changed the ownership cap rules? All I know is Commissioner Carr was floating the idea, but I don't recall the rule being amended or changed formally.

I hope the courts do overturn this deal and Nexstar is forced to divest all of the Tegna stations. And since Tegna no longer technically exists, Nexstar should be forced to sell these stations as going concerns...or be forced to restore the stations to the way they were before they took over them.

Aside from WAVY and WTHR, these divestitures are a joke. Stations that are tied to the hips of their parent stations instead of the standalone ones that should have been sold off. KTVD is tied to KUSA. Both of these should have been divested to another party. WUPL is tied to WWL. I cringe to think how much more Nexstar can destroy WWL than what Tegna has already done. KNWA is tied to KFTA. WCTX is tied to WTIC. And this leaves out other major conflicts in places like Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, Columbus, Cleveland, Little Rock, Memphis, Portland, St. Louis, Quad Cities, Grand Rapids, and others where Nexstar now owns 3 or more stations.

This is probably the worst deal to hit broadcast television since all of the RKO General corruption came to light or when NBC forced themselves on Philadelphia only to send KYW packing to Cleveland for a few years. I won't believe a thing until the bodies pile up from all of the stations Nexstar should have no control over. That's when the REAL lawsuits should start flying. And if Nexstar ILLEGALLY takes over these stations, they should be held liable and fined into oblivion. Much like when Media General took back WAGT for a few days against a legimate transfer of ownership that they refused to comply with. But the way things are headed, this is just a fraction of the problems in our country today. Laws be damned. -30-

I’m sorry, but this is wholly fucked. Nobody with a straight face can pretend this serves the viewer. What it does serve is debt structures, investor appetites, and the same consolidation treadmill that’s been shredding local news for decades. Every time one of these mega-deals goes through, newsrooms shrink, investigative coverage dies off, and more “local” stations start parroting the same pre-packaged garbage. Carr’s statement is pure, Grade A bullshit. The idea that this somehow helps local broadcasters “compete” with tech companies is laughable. Google and Facebook don’t produce journalism. They host distribution networks. Nexstar and Tegna are supposed to create the journalism those platforms amplify. But instead of reinvesting in actual reporting, they’ll gut staff and load up on syndicated filler while pretending it’s innovation. This isn’t modernization. It’s cannibalization, and we’re watching what’s left of local news get carved up for parts.

DirecTV has filed its own lawsuit to block the merger

And it's been announced. 8 states are involved: https://variety.com/2026/tv/news/states-lawsuit-block-nexstar-tegna-merger-1236693222/

He retired at the start of the year. Good Day Sacramento did a fantastic farewell interview with him:

that is false. - the Bonta lawsuit was merely filed on 3/18, nothing more - His TRO plead is from 3/20/2026, after the decision (https://oag.ca.gov/system/files/attachments/press-docs/2026.03.20 Memorandum of Points and Authorities ISO TRO.pdf) - there is no requirement to stay the approval of a merger due to pending lawsuits - unless a federal judge in those lawsuits invoked a TRO or preliminary injuction - the FCC used their administrative waiver power, given to them in the Communications Act of 1934, to pass the merger: Section 309(a) (47 U.S.C. § 309(a)), Section 303(r) (47 U.S.C.§ 303(r)) the Yale Journal on Regulation is even more clear: The bipartisan act of congress in 2004 set the ownership cap at 39% and created a legal vacuum. It fails to define: what 'national audience reach' means in the Telecommunications Act of 1996, what the UHF discount is and how it's calculated; how the FCC discretionary (waiver) power applies to the 39% cap, whether it's a one-time adjustment, among many other things. Shortly after it passed the FCC asked congress if the UHF discount can be clarified, congress ignored them, and left the courts to guess what congress meant, for 22 years. Congress could have chosen clarity in 2004. Instead they chose violence and now we're here.