Attorney General Jeff Jackson Sues to Block New TV Merger That Would Raise TV Prices for Millions of NC Families

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, March 19, 2026
Contact: comms@ncdoj.gov
919-538-2809

North Carolina Among Most Affected States in the Country

Deal would put over 260 TV stations under one roof – including WCNC and Queen City News in Charlotte, WFMY and WGHP in the Triad – raising cable and satellite bills and gutting local newsrooms across the state.

RALEIGH – Attorney General Jeff Jackson filed a lawsuit today to block Nexstar’s proposed $6.2 billion acquisition of Tegna, combining two of the largest local television broadcast companies in the country. If the deal goes through, North Carolina families would likely see higher cable and satellite bills and lose independent local newsrooms.

North Carolina is among the most affected states in the country, with several major TV markets directly in the crosshairs of the combined company. Over two million TV households across Charlotte, the Triad, and the northeastern North Carolina region would be impacted.

“Nexstar wants to buy one of its biggest competitors, gain more control over local news stations and Sunday afternoon NFL broadcasts, and charge millions of North Carolina families more for television. That’s exactly why antitrust laws exist, and I’m going to court to stop it,” said Attorney General Jeff Jackson.

Nexstar and Tegna are two of the largest TV broadcasters in the country. This acquisition would combine them into a single company owning over 260 television stations across 44 states, reaching roughly 80 percent of American households, double the FCC’s 39 percent national ownership cap.

The combined company would control over 220 affiliates of FOX, NBC, ABC, and CBS. No single company has ever controlled that much of American broadcast television.

In the affected areas, Nexstar and Tegna both own stations, meaning in those areas the merger would remove a competitor.

What Changes in North Carolina

| Market | Nexstar Already Owns | Nexstar Would Add | After the Merger |
| Charlotte | WJZY (FOX 46) | WCNC (NBC) | Nexstar owns both |
| Greensboro / High Point / Winston-Salem | WGHP (FOX 8) | WFMY (CBS 2) | Nexstar owns both |
| Norfolk / Newport News (incl. 8 NC counties) | WAVY (NBC 10)

WVBT (FOX) | WVEC (ABC 13) | Nexstar owns all three |
North Carolina is among the most affected states in the country because the merger creates overlaps in some of the state’s largest TV markets.

In Charlotte, Nexstar owns WJZY/Queen City News (FOX) and would acquire Tegna’s WCNC (NBC). In the Triad, Nexstar owns WGHP (FOX) and would acquire Tegna’s WFMY (CBS). In the Norfolk-Newport News market – which serves eight counties in northeastern North Carolina – Nexstar owns WAVY (NBC) and WVBT (FOX), and would acquire Tegna’s WVEC (ABC).

Together, these markets represent over two million TV households. The Charlotte and Greensboro markets alone account for nearly half of all TV households in North Carolina.

Higher Bills

Once Nexstar owns both stations in your market, it can threaten to black out two of your four major channels at once if your provider won’t pay the new price. Your cable or satellite company will have no real choice but to pay. That cost goes directly onto your monthly bill.

Nexstar already charges the highest average retransmission fees of any broadcaster in the country. And Nexstar’s own chief financial officer told investors there are “about $300 million of synergies” in this merger – and that roughly 45 percent of those savings would come from collecting higher fees from cable and satellite companies. That’s approximately $135 million extracted from TV providers, and ultimately from families, every year.

Fewer Newsrooms

Higher bills are not the only consequence. When Nexstar buys a competitor in the same city, it “consolidates” the newsrooms—effectively removing one of them. The company has an internal name for this: the “Consolidation Playbook.”

In Indianapolis, for instance, Nexstar owns both the FOX and CBS affiliates. Those two stations – supposedly competitors – now share the same anchors, the same reporting team, the same news director, and the same website.

That pattern is central to the deal’s economics. Nexstar’s chief financial officer told investors the overlap stations are “an area where there’s a significant portion of those synergies” – meaning the company plans to collapse two newsrooms into one wherever it can.

For North Carolina, that means stations like WCNC in Charlotte and WFMY in Greensboro, which have operated independent newsrooms serving their communities for decades, could be folded into Nexstar’s existing operations. At a time when local newspapers are already disappearing, losing independent local TV newsrooms are something these communities cannot afford.

When fewer companies are competing, prices go up and quality goes down.

The federal government measures market concentration using a standard index. A merger is presumed illegal when the post-merger concentration exceeds 1,800 on this index and the merger increases it by more than 100 points.

In every single North Carolina market affected by this deal, the merger far surpasses the threshold the federal government uses to determine whether a proposed merger is likely to have anticompetitive effects, such as higher prices or lower quality.

Market Concentration in NC Markets vs. Anticompetitive Threshold

The lawsuit asks the court to permanently block the merger under Section 7 of the Clayton Act, the federal antitrust law that governs mergers.

Attorney General Jackson is joined by the attorneys general of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, New York, Oregon, and Virginia.

A copy of the complaint is available here.

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