Attorney General Tong Files Emergency Motion to Stop Nexstar/Tegna Merger

Press Releases

03/20/2026

Attorney General Tong Files Emergency Motion to Stop Nexstar/Tegna Merger

(Hartford, CT) - Connecticut Attorney General William Tong today joined a coalition of eight attorneys general in filing a motion for a temporary restraining order to stop the combination of TEGNA Inc. (TEGNA) and Nexstar Media Group, Inc. (Nexstar), after the broadcasting giants announced the closed the deal yesterday evening, minutes after receiving regulatory approval from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). The night before that, Attorney General Tong filed a lawsuit to block the merger, a deal that is expected to create the largest broadcast station group in the United States, put more broadcast programming in the hands of fewer people, cut local jobs, increase cable bills, and significantly impact the delivery of news and other media content to Americans nationwide.

"This merger would create an unprecedented concentration of control over local TV markets, giving a single company more control over what we watch, what we pay, and the news we rely on. This kind of consolidation hurts competition, drives up costs, and threatens local journalism. We're asking the court to stop now before the damage is done," said Attorney General Tong.

If approved, this multibillion-dollar deal would combine the nation's largest and third-largest television-station conglomerates, creating a titan covering 80% of U.S. television households. In Connecticut, Nexstar would control 63.6 percent of the state's "Big Four" network television market, one of the largest post-merger increases in Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (HHI), a well-established method for measuring market concentration. The loss of competition between Nexstar and TENGA will also likely lead to the consolidation of local television newsrooms. It will likely lead to the consolidation of Nexstar's News 8 and TENGA's Fox 61, leaving only NBC CT and Eyewitness News 3 as independent.

The Trump Administration has shown states and consumers that it is more concerned with protecting corporate interests than in doing its job to defend the public and uphold consumer protection and antitrust laws that help make life more affordable for American families. Attorney General Tong has responded by intervening when the Trump Administration allegedly greenlit the Hewlett-Packard Enterprises/Juniper Networks merger not for the public interest, but to line the pockets of its friends, and by continuing to fight for a better deal for consumers after U.S. DOJ settled days into the much-awaited Live Nation/Ticketmaster trial - an action promptly rejected by a bipartisan group of attorneys general.

Assistant Attorneys General Julian Quiñones, Rose Levine and Deputy Associate Attorney General and Chief of the Antitrust Section Nicole Demers assisted in this matter.

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Elizabeth Benton [email protected]

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