News Grower

Independent coverage of AI, startups, and technology.

Ars Technica Mar 20, 2026 at 20:08 Big Tech Stable Warm

Trump FCC lets Nexstar buy Tegna and blow way past 39% TV ownership cap

Brendan Carr lets Trump-favorite Nexstar exceed national station ownership limit.

Signal weather

Stable

The story has moved beyond the first headline and now acts as a reliable context anchor.

By Jon Brodkin Original source
Trump FCC lets Nexstar buy Tegna and blow way past 39% TV ownership cap

The Federal Communications Commission yesterday approved Nexstar Media Group's $6.2 billion purchase of Tegna, granting a waiver that lets the broadcast giant go way past the national limit on station ownership. Nexstar said it closed the acquisition late in the day yesterday, immediately after receiving the FCC approval. The deal was also approved by the US Department of Justice, but a group of state attorneys general are challenging the merger in court in an attempt to unwind it. Opponents say the FCC lacks authority to grant the waiver and that only Congress can change the 39 percent ownership limit. While the FCC says Nexstar will own fewer than 15 percent of TV stations, the cap in the FCC's National Television Ownership Rule is calculated by the percentage of US households reached by a single entity's stations. The Nexstar/Tegna combination will reach 80 percent of TV households in the US, or 54.5 percent when applying what's known as the "UHF discount."Read full article Comments

Stay on the signal

Follow Trump FCC lets Nexstar buy Tegna and blow way past 39% TV ownership cap

Follow this story beyond a single article: new follow-ups, adjacent sources, and the evolving storyline.

We send a confirmation link first, then only meaningful digests.

Story map

Understand this topic fast

A quick entry into the story: why it matters now, who is involved, and where to go next for context.

Why it matters now

This story is still moving and pulling follow-up coverage.
There are already 6 connected articles in the same storyline to continue from here.
The story keeps orbiting around Ars Technica, Brendan Carr, and Exceed National, so the entity pages are the fastest way to build context.
Ars Technica already has 4 follow-up stories on the same theme.

Topic constellation

Open the live map for this story

See which entities, story threads, sources, and follow-up articles shape this story right now.

Click nodes to continue

Entity Cluster Article Hub Source

Story timeline

Continue with this story

A short sequence of events and follow-up stories to understand the arc quickly.

Jun 21, 2026 at 17:49 Ars Technica

Trump admin’s coal investments assist plants with repeated violations

At least three coal plants have been repeatedly cited for violating environmental regulations.

Jun 21, 2026 at 10:00 Ars Technica

Review: Widow's Bay is a boldly original take on comedic horror

An eminently binge-able series that honors classic horror tropes while reinventing them in surprising ways

Jun 20, 2026 at 11:15 Ars Technica

The UK will scan asylum-seekers’ faces for age checks—despite knowing the tech is flawed

Tests of age-verification technology show the risks of life-altering errors.

Jun 19, 2026 at 13:36 Ars Technica

Rocket Report: Rebuild begins at Blue Origin launch pad; Relativity targets Mars

A French launch startup is scrapping the name of its rocket, apparently due to a trademark issue.

Jun 19, 2026 at 11:15 Ars Technica

As global warming threatens corals, scientists search for reefs that can take the heat

Researchers say these coral strongholds may help repopulate more degraded reefs.

Mar 20, 2026 at 20:08 Ars Technica

Trump FCC lets Nexstar buy Tegna and blow way past 39% TV ownership cap

Brendan Carr lets Trump-favorite Nexstar exceed national station ownership limit.

How reliable this looks

Signal and trust for Ars Technica

This source works at a steady pace: 100% of recent stories land in the hot window, and 0% carry visible search signal.

Trusted

Reliability

92

Freshness

100

Sources in storyline

1

Related articles

More stories that share tags, source, or category context.

More from Ars Technica

Fresh reporting and follow-up coverage from the same newsroom.

Open source page