Washington DC – On Thursday, President Donald Trump‘s Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approved Nexstar’s purchase of Tegna in a $6.2 billion deal that will give it more local television stations in the country than any rival.
Tegna is the parent of 64 television stations, and after the transaction is complete, Nexstar’s reach will extend to 54.5% of the national audience.
In their ruling, the FCC decided to waive an “ownership rule” cap that sought to deter such a high amount of control.
“The DC Circuit [court] has already determined that the relevant media ownership regulation is an agency rule, not a firm statutory limit,” FCC chairman Brendan Carr explained in a statement.
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“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,” he added.
The move comes as Carr and Trump have been aggressively threatening news networks and media figures that share content that is critical of the president.
The ruling noted opposition to the merger by EchoStar, which argued it would “effectively create a single broadcast behemoth with the power to homogenize news coverage, mandate editorial policy, and drive diverse political viewpoints from the local airwaves across the entire country.”
A public interest coalition called State Cable Petitioners similarly argued the merger would reduce locally produced news content and allow Nexstar to mandate broadcasts of segments that further its political agenda.
