Attorney General Bonta to Court: Nexstar/Tegna Violating Court Order to Stop Merging

Files motion for clarification and other compliance relief

SACRAMENTO — California Attorney General Rob Bonta today, as part of a bipartisan coalition of 13 attorneys general, filed a motion for clarification in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California, raising concerns about actions by Tegna Inc. (Tegna) and Nexstar Media Group, Inc. (Nexstar) that are in apparent violation of the court’s hold-separate order. Earlier this year, Attorney General Bonta and a coalition of attorneys general sued the companies and secured a preliminary injunction halting the merger from moving forward while the case proceeds. In today's motion, the attorneys general ask the court to clarify that current and recent Nexstar personnel may not sit on Tegna’s Board of Directors. Such board composition enables Nexstar to improperly control Tegna, in violation of the court's order that the companies operate independently while the lawsuit proceeds. A Nexstar/Tegna merger would be expected to create the largest broadcast station group in the United States, put more broadcast programming in the hands of fewer people, cut local jobs, increase cable bills, and significantly impact the delivery of news and other media content to Americans nationwide.

“Earlier this year, I led attorneys general across the nation in filing a lawsuit to challenge the unlawful Nexstar/Tegna broadcasting merger. This merger would cause incredibly high levels of concentration in local TV markets and cause irreparable harm to local news and consumers who rely on their reporting as a critical source of information," said Attorney General Bonta. "Today, amid changes to Tegna's Board of Directors, I ask the court to clarify the scope of its preliminary injunction order, which demands that broadcasting titans Nexstar and Tegna stop merging activities while our challenge to this illegal merger proceeds. The stakes here are high: Further integration is against the court’s directive and, if allowed, would kick off Nexstar and Tegna’s ability to control and raise prices, fire journalists, and dominate the broadcast media landscape."

On March 18, Attorney General Bonta led a coalition of eight attorneys general in filing a lawsuit to block the merger, and since then, the coalition has grown, now representing 13 bipartisan attorneys general. If allowed to proceed, this multibillion-dollar deal would combine the nation’s largest and third-largest television-station conglomerates, creating a titan covering 80% of U.S. television households. In California, the combined entity would own half of the Big Four (FOX, NBC, ABC, and CBS) network-affiliated stations in two areas: the local FOX and ABC stations in the Sacramento-Stockton-Modesto area and the local FOX and CBS stations in the San Diego area. Alarmingly, in the weeks leading up to the merger’s closing, reports detailed Nexstar’s firing of long-standing journalists in Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York.