Nexstar Wants To Keep Media General Joints Sales Agreements

In winning Federal Communications Commission approval of its $4.6 billion merger with Media General, Nexstar Broadcast Group may have more trouble than it thought when it announced the deal late in Jan. In the filing seeking the FCC blessing, Nexstar and Media General ask for "a temporary waiver" that would allow Nexstar to maintain Media General joint sales agreements in six markets until 2025. The markets: Albany (NY), Augusta (GA), Springfield (OH), Lansing (MI), Topeka (KS), and Youngstown (OH).

However, during the week of Feb 8, in granting approval of Gray Television's purchase of Schurz Communications radio and TV stations, the FCC denied the transfer of the single JSA in Wichita-Hutchinson (KS), setting a precedent that Nexstar and Media General may not be able to get around. Nexstar and Media General argue the FCC should OK the JSAs just as it did when Media General merged with LIN Television in 2014. In that deal, they say, the FCC said that “[w]hen evaluating the transaction as a whole, it is clear that these agreements are only an incidental aspect of a large multi-station, multi-market transaction." The Nexstar-Media General merger involves "a substantially larger number," making the six JSAs once again incidental to the whole deal, the companies say. "Granting a temporary waiver to allow the legacy JSAs incident to this transaction to continue to Sept. 30, 2025, will serve the public interest and is consistent with Congress's directive," they say.