Nexstar to acquire Tegna

[tyrannical bastard 4676]

15 minutes ago, GoldenShine_10 said:

 

Since neither Nexstar nor Tegna currently have a duopoly there, with the recent court ruling, as long as market share isn't extreme they can actually merge them cleanly.

There was once a saying that 4 and 6 do not come close to equaling 10 in Columbus.

 

Nowadays, do 4 and 10 come close to equaling 6?

 

I guess it's a wait and see to how far 10 has fallen under Tegna, and if 4 has actually recovered under Nexstar. 

Before, 4 and 10 dominated and often traded first place between each other.

[nickp 393]

 Would be interested in how that went with people who were in those situations during Tribune and Media General mergers

[Big Rollo Smokes 324]

17 minutes ago, GoldenShine_10 said:

 

Since neither Nexstar nor Tegna currently have a duopoly there, with the recent court ruling, as long as market share isn't extreme they can actually merge them cleanly.

Doesn't mean that it's in anyone's best interest. Columbus is both the capital and largest city in Ohio, and by this time next year it could have only two television newsrooms. 

[GoldenShine_10 263]

3 minutes ago, Big Rollo Smokes said:

Doesn't mean that it's in anyone's best interest. Columbus is both the capital and largest city in Ohio, and by this time next year it could have only two television newsrooms. 

 

The only offsetting scenario could be if it's determined market share is too high, and that's unlikely. I suspect 65-70% or so would be the trigger point on that.

[GraphicsMan 345]

6 minutes ago, Big Rollo Smokes said:

Doesn't mean that it's in anyone's best interest. Columbus is both the capital and largest city in Ohio, and by this time next year it could have only two television newsrooms. 

That’s really sad that could happen in a lot of markets.

[Dave Lampstein 287]

Another thought... Meredith consolidated creative ops before the sale to Gray, then had to rebuild local creative teams across their stations.

 

TEGNA consolidated creative ops in January... will they have to rebuild local creative teams post-merger? Does Nexstar decide to consolidate creative across their stations into regional hubs like TEGNA?

 

Should be interesting.

[T.L. Hughes 958]

55 minutes ago, GoldenShine_10 said:

 

Since neither Nexstar nor Tegna currently have a duopoly there, with the recent court ruling, as long as market share isn't extreme they can actually merge them cleanly.

My issue is why are broadcasters using the Eighth Circuit ruling (unusual since appeals court rulings usually aren’t final until SCOTUS has their say, whether they take their case or let the lower court ruling stand) on local TV regulations to facilitate deals.

 

Not even in the Bush and first Trump administrations (the two GOP presidencies that followed the 1996 Communications Act’s passage) did broadcasters initiate M&A deals before the Republican-led FCC made any changes to broadcast ownership rules. Nexstar and Gray couldn’t wait until the FCC formally modded their rules (the Top-4 rule technically is still on the books, despite the Eighth Circuit ruling) before striking deals?

 

I should also point out that while the presumption that the GOP majority on the Commission led by Carr will deregulate, you do have one of Trump’s pals, Newsmax head Christopher Ruddy, advocating against certain rule changes (like raising the national ownership cap), something he purportedly was successful in convincing the Pai FCC not to mess with. Not to say Ruddy’s lobbying efforts will be successful this time, but still…

Edited August 19, 2025 by T.L. Hughes

[tyrannical bastard 4676]

28 minutes ago, Big Rollo Smokes said:

Doesn't mean that it's in anyone's best interest. Columbus is both the capital and largest city in Ohio, and by this time next year it could have only two television newsrooms. 

Also in Austin..where KXAN and KVUE are the top 2 stations in a growing city that's also Texas's state capitol.

Add all of the other stations that Nexstar already owns there (KBVO, KNVA) and you have a definite conflict and market share issue.

[MediaZone4K 2660]

6 hours ago, Georgie56 said:

It’s official.

Former Nexstar employee here...it sucks that the field of employers is narrowing. Even worse that the lowest paying station owner is now the biggest.

Edited August 19, 2025 by MediaZone4K

[newsteam13 417]

If the deal goes through, looks like all four Denver stations will have to move out of their existing longtime quarters.

Nexstar's existing duopoly CW2 KWGN and FOX31 KDVR is located at 100 Speer Boulevard. KDVR built their new home in 2000 for their then-new FOX31 News at 9pm. KWGN moved out of Englewood and moved in with KDVR in 2009. 

Meanwhile Tegna's existing duopoly NBC9 KUSA and MyDenver20 KTVD resides at 500 Speer Boulevard. KUSA built their home in 1992 while still an ABC affiliate.

 

Looks like NBC9, MyDenver20, CW2 and FOX31 will have have to move out of their longtime homes and into a spacious new building. Possibly right in downtown Denver.

[ABC 7 Denver 1889]

1 minute ago, newsteam13 said:

If the deal goes through, looks like all four Denver stations will have to move out of their existing longtime quarters.

Nexstar's existing duopoly CW2 KWGN and FOX31 KDVR is located at 100 Speer Boulevard. KDVR built their new home in 2000 for their then-new FOX31 News at 9pm. KWGN moved out of Englewood and moved in with KDVR in 2009. 

Meanwhile Tegna's existing duopoly NBC9 KUSA and MyDenver20 KTVD resides at 500 Speer Boulevard. KUSA built their home in 1992 while still an ABC affiliate.

 

Looks like NBC9, MyDenver20, CW2 and FOX31 will have have to move out of their longtime homes and into a spacious new building. Possibly right in downtown Denver.

 

Nah. Nexstar will sell 9News's building and consolidate operations at KDVR|KWGN, since they're right down the street from each other and Nexstar is known for gutting stations that they purchase. So 9News will be hollowed and, knowing Clyde Becker, all these stations will have the same graphics and branding (i.e. "We're on it".) because Clyde can't manage to find his way out of a McDonald's much less boost ratings. All the departments will remain mostly the same size for 4 stations as they are with 2. I expect simulcasting to save money.

 

Kyle Clark, for the record, will be fired or pushed out. See him coming to Substack soon.

[Recovering Producer 410]

6 minutes ago, newsteam13 said:

If the deal goes through, looks like all four Denver stations will have to move out of their existing longtime quarters.

Nexstar's existing duopoly CW2 KWGN and FOX31 KDVR is located at 100 Speer Boulevard. KDVR built their new home in 2000 for their then-new FOX31 News at 9pm. KWGN moved out of Englewood and moved in with KDVR in 2009. 

Meanwhile Tegna's existing duopoly NBC9 KUSA and MyDenver20 KTVD resides at 500 Speer Boulevard. KUSA built their home in 1992 while still an ABC affiliate.

 

Looks like NBC9, MyDenver20, CW2 and FOX31 will have have to move out of their longtime homes and into a spacious new building. Possibly right in downtown Denver.

 

Tribune sold 100 E. Speer to get cash before selling and signed a long-term leaseback, Tegna still owns 500 E. Speer, which can easily be sold to pay off debt and cram everyone into the KDVR/KWGN building.

 

There is no reasonable way to think they keep three brands of news, who knows exactly how that shakes out, but there are two studios/control rooms at KDVR/KWGN. If they need space for more people, the solution is to move the Denver Master Control Hub to another city and repurpose that space. Doing that solves two problems for Nexstar: the union that Nexstar doesn't want to deal with and the stupid decision they made to put a master control hub in a VHCOL city with Nexstar salaries. Parking is the only potential headache. 

[Georgie56 3661]

As for WFAA, Nexstar will finally have a true flagship station in their home market of Dallas-Fort Worth. KFAA will probably go to a shell company and KDAF will likely have newscasts restored to that station.

 

Meanwhile in Houston, this likely means the end of the KTRK-produced 9pm newscast and the recently-relaunched H-Town Morning News on KIAH. They'll probably be replaced with a 7-9am extension of KHOU's morning newscast (already on streaming) and a KHOU-produced 9pm newscast.

[tyrannical bastard 4676]

Makes me wonder about whether or not WKYC or WJW keeps their building.

 

While WKYC is a much newer and more modern facility on Lakeside (Tom Beres Way) that opened in 2001, WJW has been on South Marginal (Dick Goddard Way) since the 1970s when Storer built their only non-colonial style building to house a TV station in. 

 

WBNX is merely a formality out of the WJW facility and no longer has any presence on the Ernest Angley complex it operated out of before in Cuyahoga Falls.

 

Either way, you can bet WOIO/WUAB will be jumping at buying a vacant studio facility whatever it is, and getting the HELL out of the basement of Reserve Square.

Edited August 19, 2025 by tyrannical bastard

[Rusty Muck 4688]

I fully expect Brendan Carr to issue a statement in full support of this merger because Nexstar is a company he likes. Either he demands congress remove the cap to facilitate it, or he goes above the law and allows it anyway. Plus there's no pesky FTC or DOJ to demand any divestments.

 

The end goal is to have Nexstar exert a monopoly on the industry so they can be the company we always feared Sinclair would be... shuttering newsrooms wholesale, undermining editorial independence, pushing political agendas...

 

The only wildcard is if Fox seeks to repurchase the former LocalTV spin-offs, especially KTVI, WJW and KDVR. If they buy those stations while Nexstar keeps KPLR, WBNX and KWGN and folds them into KSDK, WKYC and WUSA, respectively, this becomes fairly academic.

[MidwestTV 1358]

Wild that a station like KUSA will inevitably end up shutting down as soon as the end of next year.

[Rusty Muck 4688]

17 minutes ago, MidwestTV said:

Wild that a station like KUSA will inevitably end up shutting down as soon as the end of next year.

Let alone WBIR—a market dynamo for decades—being dismantled and becoming a rump of WATE.

[tyrannical bastard 4676]

We can only hope that Nexstar will assume the stronger stations as they have usually done in past mergers, aside from having operational preference for ones they're embedded in like WYOU/WBRE.

 

But to fathom a case like Nexstar favoring WGNO/WNOL over WWL/WUPL is even more tragic than how Tegna destroyed them in the first place.

 

The networks are going to have their say or Nexstar will be in deep trouble if they shut down their more successful stations in favor of their inferior operations.

[GoldenShine_10 263]

16 minutes ago, Rusty Muck said:

Let alone WBIR—a market dynamo for decades—being dismantled and becoming a rump of WATE.

 

WVLT will likely dominate the market in that case.

[Rusty Muck 4688]

18 minutes ago, GoldenShine_10 said:

 

WVLT will likely dominate the market in that case.

The textbook definition of a Pyrrhic Victory, becoming a "market leader" because the mass layoffs prompt the majority of people to never watch local television ever again.

 

Which, btw, is exactly what Lance Venta is warning about in his analysis of the merger.

[TennTV1983 870]

1 hour ago, Rusty Muck said:

The end goal is to have Nexstar exert a monopoly on the industry so they can be the company we always feared Sinclair would be... shuttering newsrooms wholesale, undermining editorial independence, pushing political agendas...

 

The cannibalization of entire newsrooms has been going on for years - particularly in smaller media markets. Little Rock being one prime example with Nexstar operating four stations in the market in one building (KARK, KARZ, KLRT, and KASN), and if they are allowed to keep KTHV in this deal, that's five stations under one operator outside of Sinclair-owned KATV.

[newsman123 142]

A few things:

 

Who says they shut down great stations in place of keeping their own? Usually they keep the good one. In Denver for example, I could see them

keeping KUSA, and LMAing Fox31. They know which station is stronger. 
 

Also, station consolidation isnt bad. They cant survive on their own anymore. No one watches local news! The days of having 5 newsrooms no one watches makes no sense anymore. If they can combine into one strong profitable center.. great. 

[dman748 1316]

I think the announcement today proved that Sinclair was only bluffing just to make Nexstar enter into that agreement

 

If it weren't for that, Nexstar would've waited until after the FCC's meeting in September to decide if they wanted to buy Tegna or not, I think Nexstar knew exactly what Sinclair was trying to do which was to swipe in there and take Tegna from underneath their rug and Nexstar wasn't going to let that happen.

[Samantha 2923]

4 minutes ago, dman748 said:

I think the announcement today proved that Sinclair was only bluffing just to make Nexstar enter into that agreement

 

If it weren't for that, Nexstar would've waited until after the FCC's meeting in September to decide if they wanted to buy Tegna or not, I think Nexstar knew exactly what Sinclair was trying to do which was to swipe in there and take Tegna from underneath their rug and Nexstar wasn't going to let that happen.

 

I think it's really obvious that Sinclair knew the Nexstar train was almost at the station and was using the media reports to put the offer in front of Tegna. They'd been in talks for months. This was 11th-hour, 11th-minute. By the time we heard of it, the Tegna board had approved of it.

Edited August 19, 2025 by Samantha

[Rusty Muck 4688]

3 minutes ago, Samantha said:

I think it's really obvious that Sinclair knew the Nexstar train was almost at the station and was using the media reports to put the offer in front of Tegna. They'd been in talks for months. This was 11th-hour, 11th-minute. By the time we heard of it, the Tegna board had approved of it.

And if anything, Sinclair is now in deep trouble. They're gonna have to buy another equally-sized chain (Cox Media? ) or they're going to be left behind in the economy of scale game and will be takeover bait.

 

Their "offer" to Tegna only serves to expose how desperate they really are.