Nexstar, which owns nearly 200 television stations, hit back at the Federal Communication Commission’s $150,000 fine against Mission Broadcasting, whose stations it manages.
In a filing, Nexstar said the decision is “improper, prejudicial, and unsupported by the facts or the law.”
Last month, the FCC fined Mission Broadcasting following a 2022 complaint from Comcast accusing Mission and Nexstar of failing to “negotiate retransmission consent in good faith.”
At the time, the FCC said it was only addressing a “subset” of allegations against Mission, and Comcast’s complaint against Nexstar are still under review and “pending the outcome of ongoing investigations.”
In the filing, the company said the order against Mission should be withdrawn or set aside because it “prejudges pending allegations against Nexstar,” denies due process, makes “adverse conclusions” without taking other factors into account, and ultimately “suffers from “multiple procedural and substantive defects.”
“We’ll let the filing speak for itself,” a Nexstar spokesperson told Cord Cutters News via email.
These negotiation disputes are becoming more common as cord cutting continues to grow in popularity. The disagreements have increasingly lead to channel blackouts that can last weeks, or even months.
Nexstar is also planning to challenge another fee levied by the FCC just this month.
The Commission accused Nexstar of negotiating in “bad faith” with Hawaiian Telecom to carry its local FOX and MyNetworkTV stations. The company was told to pay $720,000 after its proposed retransmission agreement with the telecom company included a provision that would prevent Hawaiian Telecom from filing a complaint with the Commission. The FCC said it had an issue with Nexstar’s forbidding Hawaiian Telecom to file a complaint to the agency as part of the negotiations, which prompted Hawaiian Telecom to file a complaint.
The FCC charged Nexstar $120,000 for each of the seven affected stations — FOX affiliates KHON-TV, KHAW-TV, and KAII-TV, and the MyNetworkTV affiliates KHII-TV, KGMD-TV, and KGMV — for a grand total of $720,000.
The FCC wasn’t immediately available for comment.
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