Key Points
- Four Democratic lawmakers urged the FCC to block Nexstar’s $6 billion acquisition of TEGNA, warning it could raise retransmission fees by at least $135 million annually.
- The lawmakers said further consolidation would harm Black and minority communities by shrinking local newsrooms and reducing civic representation.
- They argued eliminating or waiving the FCC’s ownership cap would undermine Congress’ intent to protect localism and viewpoint diversity.
Four federal lawmakers have sent a letter to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) opposing Nexstar’s proposed acquisition of TEGNA, saying the $6 billion deal would lead to higher fees charged to cable and satellite customers.
The letter was signed by Representatives Wesley Bell of Missouri, Troy Carter of Louisiana, Steven Horsford of Nevada and Robin Kelly of Illinois, all Black Democrats who represents constituents that live in an area where Nexstar or TEGNA own at least one TV station.
The four lawmakers said the proposed Nexstar-TEGNA merger would lead to harm for Black and minority communities they represent by allowing Nexstar to “extract at least $135 million more each year for the same access to programming.”
That money would come from distribution fees charged to cable and satellite companies that offer Nexstar and TEGNA’s local television stations to their paying subscribers. Distribution fees have been the primary reason for significant price increases on cable, satellite and streaming cable-like services over the past decade.
Nexstar and TEGNA have raised distribution fees on cable and satellite companies to offset declines in their traditional TV advertising businesses. The broadcasters are among several in the industry who say consolidation is necessary so they can compete against larger streaming services like Netflix and Amazon’s Prime Video, which are licensing traditional TV content like sports for their platforms and grabbing TV ad dollars accordingly. Without consolidation, broadcasters would not be able to make long-term investments in local news and community-oriented programming, they contend.
But the lawmakers say that argument doesn’t hold up, because consolidations has been proven to decimate local newsrooms and reduce local news.
“When ownership is concentrated in fewer hands, local newsrooms are often downsized or eliminated altogether, resulting in job losses. Reporters who know their communities, cover city halls and school boards, and hold local institutions accountable are replaced with centralized programming that does not reflect local needs or perspective,” the lawmakers wrote.
Instead, the local news output generally relies heavily on national news packages “that crowds out the very local coverage that is supposed to distinguish local broadcast television from online platforms,” the lawmakers said. “As a result, communities lose trusted sources of information at a time when accurate, local news is more important than ever.”
The matter is especially important for Black communities because many rely on broadcast TV as a primary source of information, they asserted.
“When local voices are silenced and newsrooms shrink, it limits civic engagement, reduces representation, and narrows opportunities for journalists of color in an already-constrained labor market,” the lawmakers wrote in their letter.
Ordinarily, a massive merger between broadcasters would be scrutinized against the FCC’s ownership cap, which caps the number of local TV station licenses one company may hold to those that reach fewer than 40 percent of the American viewing audience.
The Nexstar-TEGNA merger involves the transfer of TEGNA-held TV licenses to Nexstar, and can be accomplished in one of two ways: The FCC’s Media Bureau can grant waivers of its ownership rule in each market where TEGNA owns a local TV station, or the agency can look for ways to raise or eliminate the ownership cap. The latter possibility is currently under consideration, and recently went through a period of public comment.
Eliminating the ownership cap should be a non-starter, the lawmakers said, because Congress intended to prevent mass-market consolidation that allows few players to exert too much control over the local news and community-oriented programming that is aired on TV.
“Congress put broadcast ownership limits in place to prevent exactly these outcomes – to protect local communities, promote diverse viewpoints, and ensure that local television serves the public interest, not just corporate shareholders,” they said.
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