“Defendants additionally don’t contest Plaintiff’s assertion that within the 16 [market areas] by which Nexstar or Tegna has a Large 4 duopoly or triopoly, they appoint a single information director to supervise a single newsroom and use the identical on-air expertise for all Large 4 channels they personal within the [market area],” Nunley wrote.
The pre-merger Nexstar owned 201 full-power TV stations and Tegna owned 64, for a complete of 265. They agreed to divest six stations, which might finally scale back the overall to 259.
DirecTV argues that “absent a hold-separate order, Nexstar will totally soak up Tegna and get rid of the businesses’ head-to-head competitors within the 31 overlap markets,” Nunley wrote. “Plaintiff asserts it is going to endure irreparable hurt from considerably diminished bargaining energy vis-à-vis Nexstar in retransmission consent negotiations. Plaintiff contends it is going to quickly discover itself negotiating for entry to extremely wanted content material, together with Large 4 sports activities and native information broadcasts, with a merged agency that intends to threaten blackouts doubling and even tripling their current hazard.”
Decide: Nexstar can’t swallow up Tegna but
Nunley determined that DirecTV’s Clayton Act declare is more likely to succeed on the deserves and that “the general public curiosity favors a hold-separate order.” The hold-separate order has quite a few elements geared toward stopping Nexstar and Tegna from integrating property or making selections collectively.
“Nexstar should allow Tegna to proceed working as a separate and distinct, independently managed enterprise unit from Nexstar, and Nexstar should put measures in place to take care of Tegna as an ongoing, economically viable, and energetic competitor,” Nunley wrote. “Tegna shall have separate administration that operates Tegna within the abnormal course in line with pre-closing practices.”
One provision within the order requires that Tegna management preserve management over decision-making “with respect to retransmission consent agreements and negotiations, newsroom personnel, operations and programming, product and repair choices, product growth, commercial gross sales, and personnel.”
One other provision says that every one native TV stations owned by Tegna “shall be maintained and operated as unbiased, ongoing, economically viable, and energetic rivals within the enterprise of licensing retransmission consent” to TV suppliers. A provision geared toward stopping layoffs says the corporations “shall use all affordable efforts to take care of” Tegna stations’ pre-merger workers ranges.
Nexstar has till April 1 to submit an argument as to why it shouldn’t face a preliminary injunction, and a listening to is scheduled for April 7 to debate the potential preliminary injunction. The decide additionally ordered Nexstar to submit a report by April 6 detailing steps it has taken to adjust to the momentary restraining order.
