Judge pauses blockbuster merger between TV station owners Nexstar and Tegna

if the deal still passes Nexstar will become the largest owner of tv stations in the nation, which monopolizes local news, limits how you can access it (nexstar is money hungry and doesn't stream local news online or on streaming platforms, they want you to watch their channels on regular cable/pay tv so they get retransmission money) and limits the amount of independent news sources. the following cities are places where Nexstar will have control over 2 or more tv stations if the deal passes Huntsville, AL; Fort Smith, AR; Little Rock, AR; Sacramento, CA; San Diego, CA; Denver, CO; Hartford, CT; Washington, D.C.; Tampa, FL; Quad Cities area, IL and IA; Indianapolis, IN; Des Moines, IA; New Orleans, LA; Grand Rapids, MI; St. Louis, MO; Buffalo, NY; Charlotte, NC; Greensboro/Piedmont area, NC; Cleveland, OH; Columbus, OH; Portland, OR; Scranton/Wilkes Barre, PA; Knoxville, TN; Memphis, TN; Abilene, TX; Austin, TX; Bryan, TX; Dallas, TX; Houston, TX; Lufkin, TX; Odessa/Midland, TX; San Angelo, TX; Waco, TX; Virginia Beach area, VA In some areas this will limit the amount of independent news sources to 2 or in some extreme cases, 1. For example in Scranton/Wilkes Barre: there are two major TV news sources, WNEP ABC (which is owned by Tegna) and the duopoly between WBRE NBC and WYOU CBS (which is owned by Nexstar). If the sale passes, the three stations will most likely merge operations and newsrooms, limiting the amount of news sources to ONE. Even though they are facing legal backlash Nexstar is moving shadily and quickly behind closed doors to make sure the deal is undoable once allowed (they are already planning on firing hundreds of station employees, merging newsrooms, selling stations to shell companies, shutting down websites, etc) In total they will own 265(?) TV stations across the United States and will be able to reach 80% of the country with these stations, along with the TV channels they own (The CW, NewsNation, Food Network)

Media consolidation is not a fun topic to talk about, but it has been a growing problem for a long time.

Nexstar, one of the operators that chose to not air *Jimmy Kimmel Live!* because he didn’t kiss Charlie and EriKa KirK’s asses?

They are killing all broadcast TV ... When I didn't know who to trust how do I watch any of it?? I got PBS and everything else I have to keep checking who owns it and what is their agenda 🤷‍♂️

Reminder that antitrust laws are still on the books, it's just that a Republican loser, Robert Bork (the same Bork who failed to get past the senate hearing for his nomination to the supreme court because he called the 9th amendment an "ink blot", and Mitch McConnel swore democrats would come to rue that day), said that "antitrust doesn't actually mean monopolies are inherently bad." It'd be egregiously wrong to say that everything wrong with this country comes down to republicans being allowed out in public...but sometimes it's hard not to come to that exact conclusion.

This merger reduces the probability of getting more than one perspective on any issue before the public. Such a situation ensues a peculiar form of indoctrination and a narrowing of critical thinking. It becomes more and more expensive for "the common news (specialized and general) consumer," thus indangering the sort of well-informed, multi-perspective views that ensure a robust democracy rather than a monolithic, single, polarized perspective approach apparent in both political.parties in 2026..

My local is already running their Nexstar graphic

For a second I thought this was talking about something dealing with Blockbuster and that's a name I haven't heard in a while

Blockbuster and Nexstar at Tegna. Blockbuster their hands wide shut.

There is a rule that no broadcaster can own more than 39% of the market, this deal would be 60% The rule was waved because both these broadcasters like Trump and the FCC will let any company that's nice to Trump do whatever they want.

Would this effect over the air news? I hooked my parents up with an antenna and they watch the local airwaves news all the time, much less drama on those

Do they have to put certain triggering adjectives into the article titles?

Mergers of companies past a certain size need to be illegal

I cannot for the life of me stop misreading Tegna as Tenga

It's too late, the Tegna station in my town is already saying it's owned by Nexstar.

My dyslexia did something funny