California Attorney General Rob Bonta is seeking to undo Nexstar Media Group’s $6.2-billion acquisition of rival TV station owner Tegna, marking the latest development in a complex series of merger disputes.
Late Thursday, Nexstar announced it had finalized the Tegna takeover despite a lawsuit filed the day before by Bonta and seven other Democratic state attorneys general in federal court. The group sued to block the merger of the two station groups, alleging that the newly formed conglomerate would violate antitrust laws and a federal statute that limits broadcast station ownership.
The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Sacramento.
Just hours after the filing, the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) Media Bureau in Washington approved Nexstar’s deal, clearing the path for the nation’s largest TV station group owner to acquire the third-largest station group. With this purchase, Nexstar — which owns KTLA-TV Channel 5 in Los Angeles — will control 265 television stations nationwide.
On Friday, Bonta and the other attorneys general requested a temporary restraining order from a judge to freeze the takeover until a hearing could be held.
“Nexstar/Tegna is not a done deal,” Bonta said in a statement Friday. “I will not let these corporate behemoths merge without a fight.”
It was not immediately clear when a judge would rule on the restraining order request.
That same day, Bonta appeared at a lawmakers’ hearing in Burbank to discuss the potential impacts of another major merger: Paramount Skydance’s proposed $111-billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery. While Bonta’s office has opened an investigation into the Paramount-Warner merger, he said no decision has yet been made about whether he or other attorneys general will seek to block that deal. For now, his focus remains on stopping the Nexstar-Tegna acquisition.
“We filed a suit before that deal closed,” Bonta told The Times. “We think our case is extremely strong. There is no way this should be approved.”
Central to the dispute is whether the FCC had the authority to grant a waiver allowing Nexstar to control TV stations reaching nearly 80% of U.S. households. In 2003, Congress set the national station ownership cap at 39%.
Despite these limits, the Department of Justice gave its blessing to close the deal. Notably, the three FCC commissioners themselves did not vote on the matter. This was despite pleas from the lone Democrat on the panel, who advocated for a more transparent process.
The rapid approval of the merger followed an endorsement by former President Donald Trump on February 7.
“We need more competition against THE ENEMY, the Fake News National TV Networks,” Trump wrote on social media. “Letting Good Deals get done like Nexstar Tegna will help knock out the Fake News because there will be more competition, and at a higher and more sophisticated level. GET THAT DEAL DONE!”
https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/business/story/2026-03-20/california-attorney-general-asks-judge-to-block-nexstar-tegna-merger
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