President Donald Trump took to Truth Social over the weekend to give his blessing to a major media consolidation.
Last summer, Nexstar and Tegna, two of the largest ownership groups of local broadcast stations in the country, announced plans to merge under one umbrella. Nexstar owns over 200 stations across the country, while Tegna owns 61 stations in 54 markets. The proposed combination would require the FCC to lift its cap on broadcast station ownership that prevents any one company from reaching more than 39% of the country’s households.
That appears to be one step closer after this weekend, with Trump posting on his social media platform, “Letting Good Deals get done like Nexstar – Tegna will help knock out the Fake News because there will be more competition, and at a higher and more sophisticated level.”
Putting aside the perplexing assertion that combining two companies in the same industry induces more competition, having the Nexstar-Tegna merger waved through would pave the way for other media consolidation. As Nexstar and Tegna fight for their deal to be approved, Sinclair is attempting a takeover bid of Scripps, a maneuver that would also require the FCC to lift its 39% cap.
For sports fans, a Nexstar-Tegna merger would see The CW, owned by Nexstar, grow its portfolio of live sports rights to include various local broadcast deals Tegna has struck with various NBA, WNBA, and NHL teams.
With more affiliates under one umbrella, carriage battles with distributors like Comcast, DirecTV, or YouTube TV would come with higher stakes, and perhaps higher risk of blackouts. The larger local station groups will have more leverage to negotiate higher retransmission fees with distributors.
Trump’s Truth Social blessing doesn’t necessarily mean this deal is on the fast-track to approval. In theory, the FCC operates independently from the president. Of course, we’ve seen Trump and FCC chairman Brendan Carr work in lockstep throughout the first year of Trump’s second term, which would suggest the deal is now more likely than not to reach approval.
About Drew Lerner
Drew Lerner is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and an aspiring cable subscriber. He previously covered sports media for Sports Media Watch. Future beat writer for the Oasis reunion tour.