# Nexstar The largest local-television station group in the United States by revenue, household reach, and station count, founded in 1996 by [[Perry Sook]] with the purchase of a single station in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Built through three decades of serial acquisitions — culminating in the $4.6 billion Media General deal (2017), the $7.1 billion [[Tribune Media]] acquisition (2019), and the [[Tegna]] merger (2026) — Nexstar now owns or operates roughly 265 stations in 132 markets across 44 states, reaching approximately 68 percent of U.S. television households. It also owns [[NewsNation]], a national cable-news network, an 81 percent controlling stake in the CW broadcast network, a 31 percent stake in the Food Network, and the political news site The Hill. ## Growth by Acquisition [[Perry Sook]]'s strategy was straightforward: buy stations in mid-size and small markets at scale, extract retransmission-consent fees from cable and satellite distributors, and use the resulting cash flow to finance the next acquisition. Each deal was larger than the last. The Media General acquisition in 2017 doubled Nexstar's station count and brought it into major new markets. The [[Tribune Media]] deal in 2019 — the largest local-TV transaction in history at the time — vaulted Nexstar past [[Sinclair Broadcast Group]] to become the nation's largest station group. The purchase included WGN America (which Nexstar rebranded as [[NewsNation]]) and stations in top markets like New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles. In 2022, Nexstar acquired a controlling interest in the CW Network from ViacomCBS and WarnerMedia, inheriting a broadcast network that had struggled for years but gave Nexstar a national platform and valuable spectrum. ## The Tegna Merger and FCC Ownership Waivers The defining consolidation event was Nexstar's pursuit of [[Tegna]], which owned 64 stations in 51 markets. The deal required an [[FCC]] ownership-cap waiver because the combined company would exceed the 39 percent national audience-reach cap established after the [[Telecommunications Act of 1996]]. Under the Biden-era FCC, the waiver stalled. Under [[Brendan Carr]], appointed [[FCC]] chairman in the second Trump administration, the waiver was granted in March 2026 and the merger closed shortly afterward. The Tegna deal exemplifies how [[FCC]] appointments — and the deregulatory posture of Republican-appointed chairs — directly shape [[Media Consolidation]]. Critics, including [[Sinclair Broadcast Group]] rivals and public-interest groups, argued the waiver gutted the ownership cap's purpose. Supporters countered that local TV stations need scale to compete with streaming and digital platforms. ## NewsNation and National Ambitions [[NewsNation]], launched in 2020 from the former WGN America cable channel, represents Nexstar's bid to build a national news brand positioned between [[Fox News]] and [[MSNBC]] — a "just the facts" alternative to partisan cable. NewsNation recruited talent like Chris Cuomo and expanded its prime-time lineup, though its ratings remain a fraction of the Big Three cable news channels. The network's editorial positioning — centrist in branding, reliant on Nexstar's local newsrooms for content — reflects [[Perry Sook]]'s bet that there is a commercial market for news that is ideologically ambiguous rather than explicitly partisan. ## Why It Matters Nexstar's rise from a single-station startup to the dominant force in local television is the defining [[Media Consolidation]] story of the broadcast sector. As local newspapers collapsed and digital platforms absorbed national news audiences, local TV stations became the last mass-reach news source in many American markets. Whoever controls those stations controls the information environment for tens of millions of voters who never watch cable news or read national outlets. That the [[FCC]] repeatedly waived its own ownership limits to enable this concentration — under both parties, but more aggressively under Republican administrations — illustrates how regulatory capture operates in practice. ## See Also - [[Nexstar and Tegna Timeline]] - [[Sinclair Broadcast Group]] — primary competitor and the other major local-TV consolidator - [[Media Consolidation]] - [[FCC]] — the regulator whose ownership-cap waivers enabled Nexstar's growth - [[NewsNation]] — Nexstar's national cable-news network