Nexstar at the Top: How the Largest Station Group Got There
From Regional Upstart to National Dominant
Nexstar reached the top of the station-group table by acquisition rather than by launch.
Photo: Y / Pexels
Nexstar Media Group began as a single-market broadcaster and reached the top of the station-count table through a decade of relentless acquisition. Founded in 1996 and headquartered in Irving, Texas, the company built its early portfolio by absorbing mid-sized market stations that larger groups had overlooked. By the time it completed its purchase of Tribune Media's broadcast assets — acquiring Tribune Media in 2019 for approximately $6.4 billion — Nexstar held licences for more than 190 television stations across more than 100 markets, surpassing every other US commercial television group by station count.
The Tribune deal was the decisive move. Tribune Media's portfolio covered large markets including Chicago and New York, giving Nexstar a footprint that stretched from regional depth to top-ten-market presence. The Federal Communications Commission approved the transaction after Nexstar agreed to divest a number of stations to satisfy both the national audience reach cap and the duopoly rule, which historically restricted common ownership of two stations in the same market. The required divestitures kept Nexstar's national reach — measured as the share of US television households its stations could reach — within the FCC's then-current 39 percent cap, a ceiling set by Congress in the 2004 appropriations legislation.
Ownership limits are set in a room like this one, on the record.
Photo: Quang Vuong / Pexels
Nexstar's path was also shaped by the FCC's 2017 ownership rule relaxations, which made certain joint sales agreements and shared-services arrangements easier to sustain, lowering the practical barrier to running multiple outlets in overlapping markets. That regulatory environment, combined with the availability of distressed broadcast assets following Tribune Media's own bankruptcy emergence, created the conditions Nexstar's management exploited most aggressively.
The resulting group is, by FCC licence count, the largest commercial television station owner in the United States. Its CW Network affiliation — Nexstar acquired a majority stake in The CW in 2022 — extended its reach into network-level programming decisions, a position no purely regional broadcaster had previously occupied.
