A federal judge on Friday extended an emergency order keeping Nexstar Media Group and Tegna operating as separate companies for another week, as he weighs whether to issue a longer preliminary injunction that could halt the $6.2 billion merger while an antitrust lawsuit works its way through the courts.
U.S. District Judge Troy Nunley of the Eastern District of California extended the temporary restraining order through April 17, saying he needed additional time to prepare a ruling on the injunction request. Legal observers said the extension itself was a signal of where the judge may be headed.
“If he was not going to issue a longer injunction, he could have just let the TRO expire today by its own terms,” said Christopher Beall, a media and copyright law professor at the University of Denver.
Along with the extension, Judge Nunley modified several provisions of his earlier order to address operational concerns raised by Nexstar. The revised order allows Nexstar to make routine debt payments and handle ordinary financial obligations tied to the acquisition, including employee salaries. It also puts Tegna in control of its retransmission consent contracts while giving Nexstar authority to manage debt it took on to finance the deal. The judge also clarified that any Tegna officers appointed to run day-to-day operations cannot be current or recent Nexstar employees.
Nexstar closed its deal to acquire Tegna on March 26, the day after receiving regulatory approval from both the Federal Communications Commission and the Department of Justice. DirecTV and eight state attorneys general, including from California and New York, had filed antitrust lawsuits the previous day. Judge Nunley issued the original 14-day restraining order on March 27, finding that DirecTV had established a likelihood of success on the merits of its antitrust claims.
The merger would give Nexstar control of roughly 260 local television stations in 44 states, reaching approximately 80% of U.S. television households — a scale critics argue would give the company outsized leverage to raise retransmission fees charged to pay-TV distributors like DirecTV. Those fees, opponents say, would ultimately be passed on to consumers. Nexstar has argued the combination is necessary to compete with streaming platforms that have steadily eroded local advertising revenue, and that the deal would result in expanded local news coverage.
President Trump publicly backed the deal, and FCC Chairman Brendan Carr granted a waiver of the agency’s broadcast ownership cap to allow it to proceed. Nexstar has also sought a $150 million bond from the states and DirecTV to cover losses it says it would incur if the merger is delayed.
By: DNU staff