Leading Colorado Democrats condemned the proposed consolidation of local TV news stations in Colorado, which would see Fox31’s owner buying its rival Tegna, owner of Denver’s 9News.
“Colorado is stronger when reporters have the independence to ask tough questions and keep us all informed,” U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet said in a statement emailed to The Colorado Sun. “An FCC-approved merger of 9News and KDVR’s parent companies would greatly weaken Colorado’s civic infrastructure.”
Nexstar Media group, owner of Fox31, announced this week that it is acquiring Tegna for $6.2 billion. The sale is expected to close in the second half of 2026.
Opponents of the deal, including Bennet and Denver Mayor Mike Johnston, worry that consolidation will give corporate owners more sway over programming, weaken important investigations by cutting staff and resources and strip news of its local voice by distributing syndicated programs. Johnston posted to Instagram Wednesday that allowing the merger would be “bad for journalism and bad for Denver.”
Tegna was created in 2015 as a broadcast- and digital-focused spinoff company from newspaper giant Gannett, which owns The Pueblo Chieftain and The Fort Collins Coloradoan in Colorado. Gannett is involved in an antitrust lawsuit against Google and its parent company, Alphabet, for what Gannett views as a monopoly on the advertising business, and the damaging effect that control has had on local news.
“This is kind of what Tegna was set up to do,” David Folkenflik, media correspondent for NPR, told The Sun. “The name ‘Tegna’ was devised by consultants because it sounded kind of futuristic and uses the same letters as Gannett. The TV properties were always the better looking companies than the newspaper properties were.”
In 2019 Nexstar became the largest local broadcaster in the U.S., surpassing Sinclair, by acquiring the Tribune Media Company in a similar-looking deal to the one proposed for Tegna. That sale required a divestment in 21 local television stations in order to meet regulatory requirements.
Many of those regulations are up for review now, or are actively being rewritten by Brendan Carr, the Trump-appointed chairman of the FCC, who has long advocated for loosening broadcast restrictions. On Aug. 7 Carr announced repealing 98 broadcast requirements identified as “obsolete, outdated, or unnecessary.”
The Tegna sale also pushes the current coverage “cap” of U.S. households by any one company well beyond its current limit of 39%. If approved, Nexstar and its partners would control 265 television stations in 44 states and Washington, D.C., covering 80% of U.S. households. In June, the FCC started a process to “refresh” the 39% cap by eliminating it.
“Nexstar is saying (the cap) can be 80%, more than twice what it is right now. That tells you something about their ambitions,” Folkenflik said. “They’re looking to totally reshape the way things are.”
Tegna and Nexstar executives have pointed out that things have already been completely reshaped by tech and streaming giants. Their competition, executives from both companies have argued, is no longer limited to other broadcast networks, but extends now to companies like Meta, Google, Netflix and Amazon, which are not subject to the same regulations as broadcast stations.
There’s truth to that argument, Folkenflik said.
“Competition for people’s attention, for their eyeballs, comes from all kinds of unimagined quarters in a way that simply didn’t exist a generation ago,” he said. “There is a point to that. But not all of those distractions create news. Not all of those products and creators are bound by any sort of public service regulations, obligations or even sensibilities.”
In Nexstar’s announcement of the merger, the company wrote that the sale will allow them to better serve communities “by ensuring the long-term vitality of local news and programming from trusted local sources and preserving the diversity of local voice and opinion.”
Further down in the announcement, the company mentions “annual net synergies of approximately $300 million from a combination of revenue synergies and net operating expense reductions.”
“So those are layoffs,” Folkenflik said. “It doesn’t have to be layoffs, but it almost certainly means layoffs.”
Nexstar’s record matters, he added.
“You know, they don’t seem uninterested in television news. They seem to be investing in it. But these deals are usually grounded on the conceit that they will save money. There’s always the notion of ‘synergy,’ that you can do more by combining than you can do apart. And a lot of that has to do with budget cuts.”
Attorney General Phil Weiser said Thursday he has concerns about the sale, and that his office would “closely review this proposed merger to determine if it will harm Coloradans.”
Nationally Nexstar and Tegna overlap in roughly 35 markets. If the merger is approved, Nexstar would own Fox31, 9News and its sister station KTVD in Denver, as well as CBS affiliate in Grand Junction KREX and the Fox station KXRM in Colorado Springs.
“They are looking to get access to twice the level of the American viewing audience than they are currently allowed. They are saying this will better serve their journalistic offerings and diversity of voices,” Folkenflik said. “Now I think the onus is on them to make that case.”
