DIRECTV says documents produced by Nexstar Media Group in an ongoing lawsuit over retransmission consent fees support its argument that the broadcaster wrongfully colluded with two other companies to raise and fix the fees its must pay for the privilege of distributing their network-affiliated stations.
The case, which has played out since 2023, centers around negotiations to carry local TV stations licensed to White Knight Broadcasting and Mission Broadcasting, which are operated by Nexstar through local management agreements.
DIRECTV has pursued an antitrust claim against Nexstar over the retransmission consent arrangement after accusing the broadcaster of improperly trying to charge higher fees for its own network-affiliated stations by including outlets owned by White Knight and Mission during negotiations.
DIRECT offers Nexstar’s local broadcast stations to its satellite and streaming subscribers, but doesn’t currently carry dozens of stations licensed to Mission or White Knight.
In January, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals denied an effort by Nexstar to have the case thrown out. The broadcaster has since appealed the matter to the U.S. Supreme Court, which has yet to take up the case. The lawsuit is separate from one involving DIRECTV and several state attorneys general over Nexstar’s acquisition of TEGNA that is playing out in California.
On August 11, attorneys representing DIRECTV in the price-fixing case against Nexstar said both sides have made “substantial progress” toward fulfilling evidence-related disclosure orders that were handed down earlier this summer.
Documents passed by Nexstar to DIRECTV have already proven to be eye-opening, DIRECTV’s attorneys wrote, in that the records substantiate its claims of conspiracy over retransmission consent prices and terms.
The records include communications between Nexstar and the two other companies through an intermediary, media consultant Eric Sahl, “to raise and fix retransmission rates for” pay TV companies, DIRECTV’s attorneys said.
“They further show Nexstar deploying a common negotiating playbook across those entities, aligning blackout strategy and public messaging, and relying on Sahl to facilitate the exchange of information and negotiating positions,” DIRECTV wrote in its brief to the court this week.
DIRECTV also told the court it would produce non-party retransmission consent agreements, including agreements that predate 2019, after satisfying notice requirements for the counterparties to those contracts.
Those documents are typically not made public by anyone involved in distribution-related negotiations, and are expected to be sealed by a court if they are produced for evidence. DIRECTV said its records are expected to stretch back to the late 1990s, and the company is working to determine if it has additional data sets that show price fluctuations for offering broadcast channels to paying subscribers over the past three decades.
Nexstar has not publicly commented on the latest revelation, but the company has denied any wrongdoing with respect to its retransmission negotiations involving DIRECTV and others in the past.
Mission Broadcasting lists its physical address within a strip mall that also houses a small church and a nutrition center. The office is about an hour outside the Dallas suburb where Nexstar’s corporate headquarters are located. White Knight Broadcasting is based in Louisiana.
The companies own less than three dozen local TV stations between them, all of which are operated by Nexstar. In the past, Nexstar has offered to financially support the acquisition of local TV licenses by Mission Broadcasting in exchange for an immediate local marketing agreement to operate the outlet, as was the case with the company’s failed attempt to acquire WADL (Channel 38) in Detroit several years ago.
