Public Interest Organizations, Labor Unions, Media Companies Band Together to Block the FCC’s Nexstar Merger Giveaway

WASHINGTON — On Friday, a broad and politically diverse coalition of groups filed an emergency petition and appeal at the Federal Communications Commission seeking to stay the agency’s unlawful March 19 decision to approve Nexstar Media Group’s acquisition of Tegna Inc. 

The multibillion-dollar combination of these two massive station conglomerates would create a broadcasting colossus with the ability to reach 80 percent of U.S. households, far exceeding the 39 percent national audience cap established by Congress to promote localism, competition and diversity in use of the public airwaves. 

“To say that the merger will ‘adversely affect’ petitioners would be a massive understatement,” according to the groups’ filing. “Everyone (including the applicants themselves) agrees that the new company will exert its newfound leverage to demand ever-higher fees … which, in turn, will translate into higher prices for millions of subscribers. And the merger will further harm the public interest with imminent cuts to journalists and other workers employed by these stations across the country, and decreased competition and viewpoint diversity in news these stations produce.”

Petitioners include Free Press, the Broadband Communications Association of Pennsylvania, the Broadband Communications Associations of Washington, DirecTV, Echostar Corporation, the Indiana Cable and Broadband Association, Mississippi Internet and Television, Newsmax Media, NABET — Communications Workers of America, Public Knowledge, the Tennessee Cable and Broadband Association, United Church of Christ Media Justice Ministry, and VCTA — Broadband Association of Virginia.

They filed both an emergency petition and application for review of the FCC order, calling on the agency to stay its Nexstar decision pending a ruling on the application. The groups assert that the FCC’s Media Bureau issued its Nexstar decision without holding a hearing, “which is the absolute least it should have done given the multiple ‘substantial and material questions’ about whether this merger serves ‘the public interest,’” according to the petition. 

Nexstar controls more than 200 owned or partner television stations in 116 local U.S. markets. The combined entity would have 265 full-power television stations in 44 states and the District of Columbia, present in 132 of the country’s 210 television Designated Market Areas.

Free Press Vice President of Policy and General Counsel Matt Wood said:

“The FCC’s unprecedented moves to grease the skids for this terrible merger are something we simply can’t let stand. Giant media conglomerates like Nexstar are bad for democracy writ large, and particularly harmful to the local communities these broadcasters are obligated to serve. That’s why Congress established a 39 percent national audience cap — to prevent one national company from controlling far too much publicly owned spectrum in cities and towns across America.

“The FCC decision to green light this terrible deal would usher in an unprecedented concentration of the broadcast television market. The new Nexstar would have vast power to raise costs for pay-TV distributors and their customers — even extorting higher fees from consumers when demand for access to news, information and entertainment content — like the NFL playoffs, NCAA Final Four, and election-related local news — is at its highest. 

“A broadcasting conglomerate of this scale would also result in more newsroom layoffs. The whole point of these deals is not better news coverage, as these massive companies claim. They’re all about raising prices and slashing costs, which means firing reporters and centralizing the production of top-down, duplicative and watered-down news. These cuts come from distant corporate headquarters of companies that are local broadcasters in name only. They lead to less original local news competition, worse coverage, and less viewpoint and ownership diversity.

“Nexstar executives and the Trump FCC knew that such a mega-merger would violate congressionally set limits on broadcast ownership and audience reach but chose to cast these concerns aside, the law be damned. We’re pleased to be challenging this unlawful deal with a diverse coalition of groups and companies, representing interests from across the ideological spectrum. If the FCC won’t do its job to protect the public interest in broadcasting, we’ll pursue every option we can to block this disastrous deal.”  

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