Today, DIRECTV submitted a new court filing, alleging that Nexstar has violated a preliminary injunction (PI) order in the company’s ongoing antitrust lawsuit.
On April 17, a federal judge temporarily blocked the Nexstar and TEGNA merger, following pushback from states and TV distributors including DIRECTV. The states and distributors claimed that the merger would create excessive market power in local television advertising and retransmission negotiations and that a consolidated company would allow Nexstar to demand higher fees from cable and satellite providers, which would translate to higher costs for consumers.
In the preliminary injunction order, Judge Troy Nunley of the Eastern District of California ordered that “Nexstar must permit TEGNA to continue operating as a separate and distinct, independently managed business unit from Nexstar,” that “Nexstar must place and maintain internal controls and procedures to prevent the sharing of competitively sensitive information,” and that “Nexstar must not influence the management of the held-separate TEGNA business unit.”
Following that order, DIRECTV says that Nexstar installed its own executives on TEGNA’s board, including Nexstar’s CEO, President, CFO, General Counsel, and the former President of its broadcasting division. When the company refused the request of the states and DIRECTV to dismantle the board, the Plaintiffs asked the judge to intervene.
The group is also asking that the judge order monthly reports from Nexstar to show that the company is complying with the PI order, saying that the company has refused to provide information.
“For nearly two months, Plaintiffs have tried to get to the bottom of this without burdening the Court,” today’s filing says. “Plaintiffs repeatedly asked Nexstar for basic information about what its executives are doing on TEGNA’s Board and why Nexstar needs its executives on TEGNA’s Board to carry out the narrow set of TEGNA-related activities that this Court expressly carved out of its hold-separate order. Nexstar, however, has refused to provide meaningful responses to Plaintiffs’ questions or produce information that would support Nexstar’s assurances about what its executives are doing or its explanation for why Nexstar executives need to be on the TEGNA Board.”
Prior to Judge Nunley temporarily stopping the merger, Nexstar Media Group closed on the $6.2 billion deal to acquire TEGNA in March, giving Nexstar control of Tegna’s 64 stations across 51 markets. While the legal battle goes on, the ABC, CBS, NBC, and FOX stations are continuing to operate under Tegna branding for now.