FCC approves Nexstar-Tegna merger, creates largest local TV operator in U.S.

March 19 (UPI) -- The Federal Communications Commission on Thursday approved the sale of Tegna and its television stations to Nexstar, which will now have a media footprint that reaches 60% of U.S. households.

FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said in a press release that the agency waived a rule prohibiting one company from owning enough broadcast television stations to reach that much of the country.

New York Attorney General Letitia James and the attorneys general from California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, North Carolina, Oregon and Virginia, as well as DirectTV, have filed suit to prevent the merger, which would create the single largest broadcast television group in the country and limit competition.

Carr pinned the decision on the two-decade long decline of local newspapers in cities and towns of all sizes across the United States, and said that allowing Nexstar to underwrite these stations is good for people.

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"The FCC has been focused on empowering broadcast TV stations to serve their local communities, consistent with their public interest obligations," Carr said in the release.

"If you care about local news, you should care about the future of local broadcast TV stations," he said. "Often, they are the ones in a market doing the gumshoe reporting that citizens value and need."

Carr called the approval an example of the FCC being "mindful of the media marketplace that exists 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."

Nexstar already is the country's largest broadcast television company, owning 200 stations in 116 markets reaching 212 million people in the United States.

The company was founded by Chairman and CEO Perry Sook in 1996 when he bought WYOU in Scranton, Penn., acquiring several stations starting in 2003, which included the 2016 purchase of Media General and the 2019 of Tribune Media.

Critics of the merger have included Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Newsmax owner Chris Ruddy, both of whom have questioned whether media consolidation -- specifically into a company this large -- is good for the media or the country.

"If there's one thing that's clear, it's this: Current media ownership rules were written in a vastly different technological age," Cruz said.

"Yes even in this fragmented landscape, the media's ability to shape national discourse remains powerful, making questions about market concentration as important as ever," Cruz said.

Like Carr, Sook said the merger was good for communities because it will solidify journalism at a time when the media business is is being shaped by "dynamic forces."

"This transaction is essential to sustaining strong local journalism in the communities we serve," Sook said in a press release.

"By bringing these two outstanding companies together, Nexstar will be a stronger, more dynamic enterprise -- better position to deliver exceptional journalism and local programming with enhanced assets, capabilities and talent," he said.

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President Donald Trump greets Prime Minster Takeuchi Sanae of Japan in the Oval Office of the White House on Thursday. Photo by Aaron Schwartz/UPI | License Photo