Eight state attorneys common have filed an antitrust lawsuit to block Nexstar’s pending acquisition of Tegna, which might strengthen the right-leaning Nexstar and shrink the variety of station homeowners within the US.
The states, led by California Attorney General Rob Bonta, say the TV market consolidation would harm customers.
The lawsuit is the most recent occasion of state attorneys common appearing as a counterweight to President Donald Trump. Other states could be a part of the coalition within the close to future.
“This merger is illegal, plain and simple, running contrary to federal antitrust laws that protect consumers,” Bonta mentioned in a press release late Wednesday. “When broadcast media is owned by a handful of companies, we get fewer voices, less competition, and communities lose the critical check on power that local journalism delivers.”
Regarding native journalism, Bonta’s workplace highlighted latest layoffs at Nexstar-owned newsrooms in Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York.
The state motion will possible sluggish Nexstar’s months-long effort to purchase Tegna. The station homeowners had no speedy touch upon the lawsuit.
Bonta has additionally vowed to “vigorously” overview Paramount’s pending deal to take over Warner Bros. Discovery, the media big that owns NCS.
The antitrust lawsuit difficult the Nexstar deal was filed within the Eastern District of California, alleging that the merger would hurt native TV markets, together with Sacramento and San Diego.
The state-level go well with stands in stark distinction to the federal authorities’s posture towards the pending deal.
Last month, Trump modified his tune on the deal. Having beforehand sounded skeptical of a Nexstar-Tegna mixture, he wrote on Truth Social that Nexstar’s acquisition “will help knock out the Fake News because there will be more competition, and at a higher and more sophisticated level.”
There will, by definition, be much less precise competitors in markets like Denver, Seattle and Dallas.
For Nexstar to take over Tegna, the FCC would have to change the nationwide TV possession rule, which caps station possession at 39 % of all US TV households. Trump’s ally atop the FCC, Brendan Carr, has mentioned he desires to increase the cap, and final month he mentioned the president is “exactly right” concerning the Nexstar deal. “Let’s get it done,” Carr wrote.
The coalition of state attorneys common highlighted the Trump administration’s help for the deal in a press launch in a single day.
Nexstar CEO Perry Sook has labored additional time to enchantment to Trump, billing his firm as “the anti-fake news” and happening Maria Bartiromo’s Fox Business present to reward Trump’s insurance policies. Media observers have requested whether or not new MAGA-friendly discuss exhibits on the Nexstar-owned NewsNation cable channel have been additionally partly a means to enchantment to the president.
But the Nexstar-Tegna deal has additionally created a schism in conservative media, with Newsmax and One America News Network lobbying arduous in opposition to the deal.
Nexstar’s pursuit of Trump administration approval for the deal grew to become nationwide information final fall when Carr publicly condemned ABC late-night host Jimmy Kimmel, and Nexstar nearly instantly yanked Kimmel’s present from its ABC-affiliated stations.
Nexstar denied being influenced by Carr’s feedback, however the notion that it capitulated within the face of Trump administration strain provoked widespread criticism. Nexstar restored Kimmel’s present on its ABC-affiliated stations in a matter of weeks.
Nexstar and its allies have argued that broadcast consolidation is critical in order that station homeowners can compete with a lot greater streaming and social media platforms.