ATTORNEY GENERAL RAOUL FILES LAWSUIT SEEKING TO BLOCK $6.2 BILLION NEXSTAR/TEGNA BROADCASTING MERGER

March 19, 2026

***Video of this morning's press conference announcing this litigation can be found here***

Chicago - Attorney General Kwame Raoul, as part of a coalition of eight attorneys general, filed a lawsuit to block the acquisition of Tegna Inc. (TEGNA) by Nexstar Media Group Inc. (Nexstar).

TEGNA and Nexstar are two major broadcast station companies that own and operate television stations throughout the country. If allowed to proceed, the deal would create the largest broadcast station group in the U.S., putting more broadcast programming in the hands of fewer people, removing control from the communities they report to, cutting local jobs, and significantly impacting the delivery of news and other media content to Americans nationwide. Due to the considerable increase in consolidation, the deal is also expected to raise prices and harm consumers.

"If allowed to proceed, the merger between Nexstar and TEGNA would create a broadcast behemoth with control over an unprecedented share of broadcast television content, including local news and sports," Raoul said. "The effect would mean higher prices for Illinois consumers, less competition in local news and job cuts to newsrooms and on-air staff. Now more than ever, consumers should have access to the diverse ideas represented in independent newsrooms."

In their lawsuit, filed today in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California, Raoul and the coalition argue the merger clearly violates Section 7 of the Clayton Act, which holds that mergers that substantially lessen competition or tend to create a monopoly are illegal. In Illinois, these concerns are especially real. In the Quad Cities, Nexstar already controls the CBS- and FOX-affiliated stations while TEGNA owns the ABC-affiliated station. And in the St. Louis market - which includes 14 counties in southwestern Illinois - Nexstar already owns the FOX- and CW-affiliated stations, while TEGNA owns the NBC-affiliated station. Nexstar has already reportedly cut newsroom and on-air staff at WGN-TV in anticipation of the merger, raising serious concerns about what more consolidation could mean for local journalism across the state.

In addition to the U.S. Department of Justice's (DOJ) role in this merger, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) also has authority and responsibility under the law to halt the proposed merger, as the $6.2 billion Nexstar/TEGNA deal would violate an FCC rule which requires waivers from two FCC ownership limits meant to prevent excessive media consolidation.

However, on Feb. 7, President Trump publicly expressed his support for the merger by tweeting "Get that deal done!" saying that the two companies should be allowed to merge in order to "Knock out the Fake News" from the "Fake News National TV Networks." FCC Chairman Brendan Carr immediately responded on social media: "Let's get it done."

The administration's actions have shown states and consumers that it is more concerned with protecting corporate interests than upholding consumer protection and antitrust laws that help make life affordable for American families. Attorney General Raoul has responded to these actions by intervening when the Trump administration allegedly green lit 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 the DOJ settled days into the much-awaited Live Nation/Ticketmaster trial, an action promptly rejected by a bipartisan group of attorneys general.

Joining Raoul in filing today's lawsuit are the attorneys general of California, Colorado, Connecticut, New York, North Carolina, Oregon and Virginia.