FCC Empowers Local Broadcast TV Stations
Agency Approval of Nexstar - TEGNA TV Station Deal, with Conditions Committed to by Nexstar, Promotes FCC’s Media Policy Goals of Localism, Diversity, and Competition
   
WASHINGTON, March 19, 2026—Today, the FCC’s Media Bureau approved the sale of certain local broadcast TV stations from TEGNA to Nexstar, with certain conditions Nexstar committed to in the record.  The Media Bureau found that approving this transaction, with those commitments, will empower these broadcasters to better serve their communities by investing in local news and reporting.  The transaction will also enable these broadcast TV stations to counter the growing power that national programmers have amassed in recent years.  In short, approving the deal—which will allow Nexstar to own less than 15% of television stations—will promote the FCC’s longstanding media policy goals of competition, localism, and diversity.  This is especially so given the concrete commitments that Nexstar has made in the record on affordability, localism, and their commitment to divest a number of TV stations.

Chairman Brendan Carr issued the following statement:

“The FCC has been focused on empowering broadcast TV stations to serve their local communities, consistent with their public interest obligations.  Today’s agency decision does exactly that as both the record and Nexstar’s enforceable commitments demonstrate.  For too long, the FCC stood by while newspapers closed by the dozen in communities all across the country.  Those trusted sources of local news and information shuttered while the FCC dithered.  If you care about local news, you should care about the future of local broadcast TV stations.  Often, they are the ones in a market doing the gumshoe reporting that citizens value and need.  By approving this transaction, which allows Nexstar to own less than 15% of television stations, the FCC acts mindful of the media marketplace that exits today—not the one from decades past—and the agency ensures that these broadcasters have the resources to continue investing in their local news operations.  

“The D.C. Circuit has already determined that the relevant media ownership regulation is an agency rule, not a firm statutory limit, and the full Commission has reached the same determination on multiple occasions.  Waiving that rule here is consistent with longstanding FCC authorities and doing so promotes the underlying purpose of the FCC’s media regulations by promoting competition, localism, and diversity.  I want to thank the Media Bureau team for their great work on this matter.”

Additional Background Information:

On December 1, 2025, the FCC accepted for filing applications seeking approval to transfer control of certain TV stations from TEGNA to Nexstar.  At the time, TEGNA operated 64 full power broadcast television stations, one AM radio station, and one FM radio station.  Nexstar operated 201 stations in 116 television markets.  According to the applicants’ press release, the companies’ footprints overlapped in 35 designated market areas (DMAs), and the combined company would operate 265 full-power television stations in 44 states and the District of Columbia and in 132 of the country’s 210 television DMAs.  The applicants sought both a waiver of the FCC’s National Television Multiple Ownership rule and waivers of the Local Television Ownership rule in 23 DMAs to allow it to own more than two stations in the DMA; in addition, the consolidated company would own two stations in each of 17 DMAs.  Nexstar has committed to divesting 6 stations across 6 different DMAs as well as commitments that go to affordability and localism.

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