Chief U.S. District Court Judge Troy A. Nunley waited until a temporary restraining order was about to expire before announcing he has issued a preliminary injunction preventing the Nexstar Media Group-Tegna merger from moving forward.
The ruling issued Friday puts the merger on hold while the antitrust case moves forward in court.
In the 52-page ruling, Nunley outlined multiple reasons for his decision to keep the two companies separate, including that it would cause “irreparable harm” to DirecTV and eight states, including Colorado, the plaintiffs in the case.
The harms outlined in the ruling include job cuts and a decrease in the quality of news in markets impacted by combined stations, and price hikes in the form of increased retransmission fees to companies like DIrecTV.
Arguments in support and opposition to an injunction happened on April 7, in a Sacramento courtroom.
Shortly after the ruling was released Friday, California Attorney General Rob Bonta issued a statement that said, in part, “This merger is illegal, plain and simple. The federal government may have thrown in the towel, but we’ll keep fighting for consumers, for workers, for affordability, and for our local news.”
The $6.2 billion merger could have widespread impact on the Denver television market if allowed to proceed. Nexstar Media Group wanted to combine KDVR Fox31 and KUSA 9News, two of the top stations in the market.
Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser posted a statement on X Friday that said in part, “Our case will prevent cable price hikes, keep in place quality broadcast programs and news offerings, and protect diversity of views.”
The Department of Justice signed off on the merger in March, after Federal Communications Commission chair Brendan Carr granted a waiver of the agency’s broadcast ownership rule limiting how many stations a company can own to 39% of the national audience. The merger would give Nexstar 80%.
The day after the merger closed, Tegna stations started ending all local programs with the Nexstar copyright, a practice that stopped after the judge issued an emergency temporary restraining order halting the merger.
When Nunley issued the emergency temporary restraining order on March 27, the judge noted that the merger would make Nexstar the owner of two or even three of the “Big Four” local affiliates in 31 local television markets. Once that occurs, Nunley wrote, multichannel video programming distributors such as DirecTV would have to comply with Nexstar’s demands for higher broadcast fees or risk leaving subscribers potentially unable to watch things like Sunday NFL football games.
Nunley extended the order on April 10.
Nexstar CEO Perry Sook on March 26 held a companywide meeting inside the Tegna station WFAA-TV in Dallas that was broadcast to Tegna and Nexstar stations across the country, where he outlined plans for the merger, including potential layoffs and station consolidations.
In Friday’s decision, Nunley wrote, “Ultimately, because Plaintiffs raise a likelihood of success on the merits of their claims and establish irreparable harm absent an injunction, the Court finds the public interest favors a hold-separate order.”
The preliminary injunction to keep the companies separate through the course of the case will start on April 21, and the temporary restraining order will continue until then.
In the meantime, the judge outlined ways the two businesses should move forward. He said Tegna should continue operating as a separate business from Nexstar by putting in controls to prohibit the sharing of sensitive information. He also said Nexstar must ensure Tegna appoints or reappoints leadership, and must assure those individuals aren’t current Nexstar employees, or people who worked for Nexstar in the previous six months.
Sook was asked about the temporary restraining order following the April 7 hearing, he had no comment.
The Associated Press contributed to this report