Keep It Local Media Coalition
Protect Local Media
& Consumers' Wallets
The Nexstar-Tegna Mega-Merger Will Drive Up TV Prices & Strain Family Budgets Even Further
We're fighting to save real local news & stop costly mergers that drive up prices, shutter local newsrooms & leave communities reliant on giant, distant corporate overlords for their local news and programming.
Save
Local News
Runaway consolidation in the news business threatens to decimate newsrooms across the country, depriving millions of relevant, meaningful, genuinely local coverage, stories, and perspectives. Consumers highly value local broadcast news, but the “local newsroom” model that has worked for decades is at risk as national corporate broadcast chains like Nexstar, Tegna, Sinclair, Scripps, and Gray continue to swallow up community stations and replace on-the-ground reporting with regional or national feeds spewing recycled corporate talking points.
Say No to
Higher TV Bills
Massive broadcast groups like Nexstar, Tegna, Sinclair, Scripps, and Gray TV, leverage their control over local viewing to exact massive “retransmission consent fees” from pay TV services – driving up consumer bills and costs. The broadcast giants have already driven such fees from about $215 million in 2006 to over $14 billion in 2021, a 65-fold increase, fueling inflation. And by approving the unlawful Nexstar/Tegna mega-merger, FCC Chair Brendan Carr would impose a new hefty tax on millions of consumers’ monthly video bills.
Stop
Nexstar/Tegna
The “Big Get Bigger” Nexstar/Tegna merger would massively accelerate the destruction of newsrooms and loss of journalism jobs around the country. It would lead broadcast media down the lawless path of Big Tech, putting us all at the mercy of a handful of unaccountable giants with the power to dictate the news, censor viewpoints they don’t like, and shut down competition before it even gets off the ground.
Nexstar/Tegna by the Numbers
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Over the past 15 years, the country’s five biggest broadcast groups have expanded their ownership portfolios from 128 stations to nearly 700 stations.
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Post-merger, Nexstar Tegna would be a nationwide behemoth, controlling 265 TV stations and reaching more than 80% of the country, more than double what federal law allows!
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From 2010 thru 2024, big broadcaster retransmission fees per subscriber jumped from $1.03 to $21.71 per month - a more than 2,000% increase.
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Nexstar has blacked out its stations more than 575 times over the past decade.
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Nexstar pays the lowest wages in the business, 22% below the median, and two-thirds of Nexstar workers report needing public assistance or support from family and friends to get by.
The Bottom Line
The FCC, Department of Justice, and State Attorneys General have the power to stop this merger and protect Americans’ TV bills from station inflation.
Rejecting this deal is essential to keeping TV affordable for working families.
Join us
in the fight to
protect local media