Federal Judge Blocks Nexstar-tegna Tv Station Merger Until Antitrust Lawsuit Is Settled

A national judge has blocked a $6.2 cardinal merger of section tv giants Nexstar Media Group and rival Tegna until an antitrust suit is resolved.

U.S. District Court Chief Judge Troy L. Nunley successful Sacramento, California, made nan ruling precocious Friday afternoon, uncovering that 8 attorneys wide and DirecTV were apt to prevail successful their ineligible bid to extremity nan merger. The attorneys general, each Democrats, and DirecTV contend nan merger will lead to higher prices for consumers, stifle section publicity and that nan woody runs afoul of national laws designed to protect against monopolies.

The deal, announced past year and approved by nan Federal Communications Commission, would create a institution that owns 265 tv stations successful 44 states and nan District of Columbia, astir of them section affiliates of 1 of nan “Big Four” nationalist networks: ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC.

That would apt springiness Nexstar nan powerfulness to raise nan retransmission fees it charges to video programming distributors for illustration DirecTV, which intends higher bills for consumers, Nunley wrote. The institution besides has a way grounds of consolidating section tv news stations erstwhile it owns much than 1 position successful a market, nan judge said, meaning viewers “will suffer options for wherever to get their section news.”

The woody could besides unit distributors for illustration DirecTV to comply pinch Nexstar’s demands for higher broadcast fees aliases consequence leaving subscribers perchance incapable to watch things for illustration Sunday NFL shot games, nan judge said.

Stopping nan merger for now is “in nan nationalist interest,” Nunley wrote.

Attorneys representing Nexstar and Tegna did not instantly respond to a petition for comment.

Nexstar’s attorneys told nan tribunal nan woody has already been reviewed and cleared by nan FCC and nan Department of Justice. They said nan FCC bid commits nan institution to grow section publicity and programming, not shrink it.

The merger needed nan support of nan Republican Trump administration’s FCC because nan authorities had to waive rules that limit really galore section stations 1 institution tin own. FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said successful March that nan institution had agreed to divest itself of six stations.

The judge said nan FCC clearance process for nan woody was “unusual,” and that nan regulatory oversight “did not curb nan manifest anticompetitive effects of this acquisition.”

The Department of Justice, which is tasked pinch conducting antitrust reviews of these types of mergers, announced it was closing its investigation of nan woody successful March done “early termination,” nan judge noted, ending nan reappraisal process sooner than is usually required by statute.

“In different circumstances — pinch nan FCC’s quasi-adjudicatory licensing proceeding still pending — nan President himself weighed successful publically successful February and urged national regulators to o.k. nan woody to ‘knock retired nan Fake News,’” Nunley wrote.

The preliminary injunction is designed to support things arsenic they are until nan suit is afloat decided, Nunley said.

New York Attorney General Letitia James called nan ruling a “critical victory” successful a connection released Friday evening.

“Consolidating hundreds of section TV stations nether 1 firm proprietor would mean higher prices and little value programming for consumers,” she wrote. She later continued, “We will support fighting our lawsuit to guarantee adjacent title among section TV stations that service communities crossed nan country.”