# Nexstar and Tegna Timeline Chronological reference for **[[Nexstar]]** and **[[Tegna]]** — the local-TV consolidation story that completes the KB's three-part account of how local news was reshaped. Where the [[Sinclair Broadcast Group Timeline]] tracks the *capture* of local broadcast through must-run content and the [[Gannett Timeline]] tracks the *evisceration* of local print, Nexstar tracks raw *concentration*: the assembly of the largest local-television company in American history under [[Perry Sook]], and a 2025–2026 merger with [[Tegna]] that the Trump [[FCC]] waved through only by **waiving the national ownership cap** — the very rule whose enforcement killed the 2018 Sinclair–Tribune deal. Sister timelines: [[Sinclair Broadcast Group Timeline]], [[Gannett Timeline]]. --- ## Era 1 — Sook Builds Nexstar (1996–2016) - **1996** — **[[Perry Sook]]** founds Nexstar, beginning with a single small-market station and pursuing a disciplined roll-up of local TV stations — the same consolidation logic as [[Sinclair Broadcast Group]], executed with a sharper financial focus. - **2000s–2015** — Nexstar grows steadily through acquisitions, building scale in mid-size markets and pioneering the use of "service agreements" to operate multiple stations per market while staying within ownership rules. ## Era 2 — Tribune and National Scale (2016–2020) - **2017** — Nexstar acquires **Media General**, roughly doubling in size. - **2019** — Nexstar acquires **Tribune Media for ~$6.4 billion**, becoming the **largest local-TV station group in the United States** by reach and revenue. **RWKB angle**: Tribune was the prize [[Sinclair Broadcast Group]] failed to win in 2018 — its deal collapsed when the [[FCC]] balked at sham divestitures — and Nexstar's successful purchase shows the consolidation Sinclair was blocked from achieving simply flowing to the next buyer. See [[Nexstar - Tribune Broadcasting Deal]]. ## Era 3 — Building a National Brand: NewsNation, The CW, The Hill (2021–2023) - **2021** — Nexstar rebrands WGN America as **[[NewsNation]]**, a national cable news channel marketed as an "unbiased" centrist alternative to Fox News and MSNBC, built on the newsgathering of its local stations. It also acquires the Washington political site **The Hill**. - **2022** — Nexstar acquires a **75% controlling stake in The CW** broadcast network, extending from local stations into national programming. - **RWKB angle**: Nexstar's strategy is to convert local-TV scale into national media reach — a station group becoming a network owner and a cable-news operator, concentrating both the local and national layers of broadcast in one company. ## Era 4 — Tegna's Separate Path (2015–2023) - **2015** — **[[Tegna]]** is spun off from **[[Gannett]]** — taking the television stations while the newspapers keep the Gannett name — becoming a standalone owner of ~60 local stations (see [[Gannett Timeline]]). - **2022** — Investment firm Standard General (Soohyung Kim) agrees to buy Tegna for ~$5.4 billion. - **February–May 2023** — The then-Democratic-majority [[FCC]] designates the Standard General deal for a hearing over concerns about job cuts and higher retransmission fees; the delay kills the deal, which **collapses in May 2023**. **RWKB angle**: the contrast with 2026 is the whole story — a 2023 FCC that scrutinized a local-TV takeover for consumer harm versus a 2026 FCC that waived the ownership cap to approve a far larger one. ## Era 5 — The Merger and the Cap Waiver (2025–2026) - **August 19, 2025** — **[[Nexstar]] agrees to acquire [[Tegna]] for ~$6.2 billion**, a deal that would push the combined company past the [[FCC]]'s national 39%-household ownership cap — making the cap itself the central question. - **March 19, 2026** — The Trump [[FCC]], under chairman **[[Brendan Carr]]**, **approves the merger with a waiver of the national ownership cap** and only six required divestitures; the [[Department of Justice]] also clears it. **RWKB angle**: waiving the cap to approve the largest local-TV combination in history is a defining act of [[Regulatory Capture]] — the same rule the FCC enforced to block Sinclair–Tribune in 2018, set aside for a friendly buyer in 2026. - **March–April 2026** — **Thirteen state attorneys general and DirecTV sue to block the deal** on antitrust and local-news-harm grounds; federal judge Troy Nunley issues a temporary restraining order (March 27) and then a **preliminary injunction (April 17)**. Nexstar "closes" the acquisition but is **barred from integrating Tegna's operations**, which continue to run autonomously under the injunction — a rare instance of the courts checking a consolidation the FCC had cleared. --- ## Why This Matters — RWKB Significance Nexstar/Tegna completes the KB's local-news trilogy and exposes how broadcast-ownership rules became politically contingent. **Concentration as the third local-news story.** Sinclair shows *capture* (must-run content), Gannett shows *evisceration* (debt-driven print collapse), and Nexstar shows *concentration* (the largest local-TV company in history). Together the three map how the most-trusted tier of American journalism — local news — was reshaped by consolidation, debt, and centralized control. See the [[Sinclair Broadcast Group Timeline]] and [[Gannett Timeline]]. **The cap waiver is the [[Regulatory Capture]] tell.** The single most revealing fact is the contrast: the national ownership cap was enforced to block Sinclair–Tribune in 2018 and to scrutinize Standard General–Tegna in 2023, then *waived* to approve Nexstar–Tegna in 2026. The rule did not change; the regulator's willingness to apply it did — depending on who was buying and who was in the White House. **Local scale becomes national power.** Nexstar's conversion of station-group scale into [[NewsNation]], The CW, and The Hill shows the strategic logic of consolidation: control of local newsgathering becomes the foundation for national brands and carriage leverage. The concentration is not just about markets but about building a vertically integrated media power from the local tier up. **The courts as the last check.** With the FCC and DOJ cleared, the state attorneys general and the resulting injunction became the only remaining brake — a reminder that when [[Media Capture]] runs through compliant federal regulators, the residual checks are litigation and the states, not the agencies designed for the job. --- ## See Also - [[Nexstar]] / [[Tegna]] / [[Perry Sook]] — the companies and the founder - [[NewsNation]] — the national-cable bet built on local scale - [[Nexstar - Tribune Broadcasting Deal]] — the 2019 deal record - [[Sinclair Broadcast Group Timeline]] / [[Gannett Timeline]] — the rest of the local-news trilogy - [[Media Consolidation]] / [[Regulatory Capture]] / [[News Deserts]] — the structural concepts - [[Right-Wing Media Timeline]] — the broader ecosystem