Nexstar Eager to Work With ‘New Congress’ on Deregulating Broadcast Ownership: ‘We See This as a Bipartisan Issue’

If there’s one thing to take away from Nexstar’s third quarter earnings call for 2024, it’s that the media company is passionate about deregulating laws around media ownership. Chairman and CEO Perry Sook explained the company’s position on the matter in depth, and said that it “may be easier” to execute under Donald Trump’s upcoming Republican administration.

Currently, no one television station owner can cover more than 39% of U.S. television households, as defined by Nielsen research. Nexstar has composed a government relations team in Washington D.C. to fight that market cap. As Sook repeatedly argued, these limitations, which were implemented in 2004, make it difficult for broadcast stations to compete with tech giants in the battle over people’s attention.

“We see this as a bipartisan issue,” Sook said. “Republicans would see it as deregulation, so good for business. Democrats and, in fact, all people would see it as an avenue to preserve local journalism.”

Sook noted that “every congressman and woman” he and his company have spoken to in the past year do not want to live in a future where news is delivered via AI chatbots from a server that’s “hopefully from somewhere in this country, but no one really knows.”

“What do we need to do to preserve local journalism? You have to have strong companies that are producing that journalism, and they have to be able to compete, with an even playing field, with big tech, who has unfettered access to every screen in your house, my house, my car, my pocket,” Sook said. “We’re not allowed to reach every television home in America with our local station footprint. And so to preserve that last mile, we think that the republic has a vested interest in maintaining a free and independent press, and we see broadcast journalism remaining or becoming that last bastion of a free and independent press at the local level.”

The Nexstar head went on to explain that the company has established its own “government relations presence” to work with both regulatory agencies and “the new Congress,” as Republicans took control of the Senate and will have the House and White House. As for whether he thinks widespread broadcasting deregulation has a better chance of moving forward under the Trump administration, Sook said “yes” but with some caveats. He explained his positioning when asked about the “duopoly” of the top four stations: ABC, CBS, CBS and Fox.

“The opportunity exists today, but it requires a waiver from the FCC, and there’s no presumption on that,” Sook said, noting that there haven’t been “a lot of announcements” of combinations between the four top-rated networks in the country. “In theory, that opportunity already exists. In practice, in a Republican administration, maybe it will be easier to access and act upon.”

Sook also speculated on the direction of the news industry at large. After having conversations with “literally hundreds of advertisers,” Nexstar found there was a consensus that many were avoiding news because they saw it as a “toxic environment.”

“We’ve obviously been working hard to dispel that notion as it relates to NewsNation,” Sook said.

“But I will say that we have watched both broadcast and cable networks over the last few days and few weeks, and it seems as there may be a kindler, gentler consensus emerging that maybe fact-based journalism will come back into vogue as well as eliminating the level of activist journalism out there,” he continued. “We’ve had nice growth in both audience and in revenues supporting our news products at NewsNation. Obviously, that’s coming off of a very low base. But at the same time, it is consistent growth, and that’s all I can ask our people to do.”

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