Court grants states’ request for a preliminary injunction

OAKLAND — California Attorney General Rob Bonta today issued the following statement after the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California granted a preliminary injunction halting the merger of Tegna Inc. (Tegna) and Nexstar Media Group, Inc. (Nexstar) while litigation in the case proceeds. The companies recently received merger approval from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the U.S. Department of Justice (U.S. DOJ), and a coalition of eight attorneys general — led by Attorney General Bonta — requested an emergency order to stop the merger. Today's preliminary injunction follows a temporary restraining order granted last month in the challenge brought by DIRECTV. Since then, the court has consolidated the states’ case with DIRECTV’s related case.

“My office and attorneys general nationwide have secured a preliminary injunction in our lawsuit opposing the illegal and U.S. DOJ-approved merger of Nexstar/Tegna — an order that demands the broadcasting titans stop merging while our case proceeds. This is a critical win in our case,” said Attorney General Bonta. “This merger is illegal, plain and simple. The federal government may have thrown in the towel, but we’ll keep fighting for consumers, for workers, for affordability, and for our local news.” 

BACKGROUND

On March 18, Attorney General Bonta led a coalition of eight attorneys general in filing 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.

If allowed to proceed, 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 California, the combined entity would own half of the Big Four (FOX, NBC, ABC, and CBS) network-affiliated stations in two areas: the local FOX and ABC stations in the Sacramento-Stockton-Modesto area and the local FOX and CBS stations in the San Diego area. Alarmingly, in the weeks leading up to the merger’s closing, reports detailed Nexstar’s firing of long-standing journalists in Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York.