Shares of Nexstar Media Group were lower on Friday, with Wall Street apparently reacting to a sizable financial judgment against the broadcaster following a lawsuit filed by DirecTV some years ago.

The order, first reported by The Desk on Thursday, requires Nexstar to pay $26.6 million in compensation to DirecTV after a New York court found the broadcaster overcharged the satellite TV provider for carriage of a TV station in Maryland.

The station involved in WDVM (Channel 25), which once operated as an NBC affiliate with the call sign WHAG-TV. In the mid-2010s, Nexstar and DirecTV were negotiating the continued carriage of its owned and operated stations on the satellite platform, and Nexstar demanded fees for the distribution of WHAG as it would any other NBC affiliate.

DirecTV proved in court that Nexstar concealed that it knew WHAG would eventually lose its NBC affiliation. The station broadcasts to part of the Washington, D.C. market, where NBC owns local TV station WRC (Channel 4). At that time, Comcast, the parent company of NBC, was winding down its affiliation agreements with smaller stations in several markets that overlapped with areas where it owned, or would soon own, the local NBC outlet.

DirecTV sued Nexstar in 2019, claiming it was owed millions of dollars in overcharges after WHAG lost its NBC affiliation. Had Nexstar negotiated carriage of WHAG as an independent outlet — which it eventually became — DirecTV would have been able to pay less money for distribution of the station through its satellite service.

In court, Nexstar argued that the company reasonably believed WHAG would continue operating as an NBC affiliate. But the court was not persuaded by their claims, finding that Nexstar made “fraudulent representations” to DirecTV during the negotiations.

On Thursday, a court approved a stipulated amount between Nexstar and DirecTV that will see the former liable for $26,623,390.57, though Nexstar retains the right to appeal. A Nexstar spokesperson has not yet returned multiple requests for comment, but a company official has told other publications that the broadcaster intends to appeal. It was not clear if the appeal will be filed in New York state court or a higher court of authority.

Nexstar certainly has the cash to pay the award should it exhaust all appeals — its free cash flow during its most recent earnings period was $327 million — though it may ultimately agree to an arrangement with DirecTV that sees no money exchanged. The company renewed its distribution agreement with DirecTV that covers around 200 local TV stations and the cable news channel NewsNation just three years ago. Both sides may ultimately agree to defer certain fees from its current and future distribution deals until the judgment is satisfied.

Still, investors appeared to react negatively to the financial judgment, with Nexstar’s stock price down 3 percent in mid-day trading on Friday. One share of Nexstar was priced at around $150 by Friday afternoon; the company’s stock price has lost 6 percent of its valuation since the start of the year.

Nexstar reports its fourth quarter and full-year financial results for 2024 next week.