Nexstar Media Group agreed to sell six television stations in order to gain regulatory approvals for its $6.2 billion acquisition of TEGNA, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) revealed on Thursday.
The divestitures were quietly included in a 40-page order released by the FCC on Thursday, during which the agency justified its green-light of the deal as benefitting the public interest when it comes to providing news and sports programming in the communities that both broadcasters serve.
The stations that Nexstar has agreed to divest include:
- KTVD (Channel 20) in Denver
- KNWA (Channel 51) in Rogers, Arkansas
- WAVY (Channel 10, NBC) in Portsmouth, Virginia
- WCTX (Channel 59) in Hartford, Connecticut
- WTHR (Channel 13, NBC) in Indianapolis
- WUPL (Channel 54) in New Orleans
Nexstar will divest the stations no later than two years from the closing date of the transaction, the FCC wrote. Nexstar said Thursday that it closed on the TEGNA deal within hours of receiving approvals from the FCC and the U.S. Department of Justice, so the shot clock on the divestitures appeared to start immediately.
Nexstar has divested stations to companies that it has business-related relationships with in the past, including Mission Broadcasting and White Knight Broadcasting, which hold the broadcast licenses to TV stations that Nexstar controls outright through local marketing and shared services agreements.
The FCC did not require Nexstar to divest the six stations to companies that are unaffiliated with its business, meaning the broadcaster isn’t prevented from executing shared services agreements with others that allow them to control and financially benefit from those stations in the future.
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