Nexstar’s CEO and Chairman Perry sook made it clear: Just because the company is about to acquire its competitor Tegna, that doesn’t mean Nexstar is finished with acquisitions.
“I don’t think that that means that we are forever done with acquisitions,” Sook said during the company’s third quarter earnings call on Thursday. “We will continue to look opportunistically for acquisitions that make good industrial logic and, most importantly, are substantially accretive to the company. I think we’ve got a pretty good track record of finding those, and and we will continue that quest.”
Sook then noted that the “next big frontier” for Nexstar will be developing monetization opportunities around of the non-video uses of ATSC 3.0. Also known as NextGen TV, ATSC 3.0 is the next generation of terrestrial broadcast systems. The CEO went on to say that buying and selling linear TV time is “inefficient” in its current form and that it’s not growing as much as advertising is in streaming.
“We need to compete on a level playing field with the buying and selling of advertising with the rest of the industry,” Sook said. “Business processes, acquisitions and ATSC 3.0 will be our focus post the successful acquisition and integration of Tegna.”
In August, Nexstar entered into an agreement to acquire Tegna in a deal worth $6.2 billion, a company that is also a leader in the broadcast television space. Once the deal is completed, Nexstar and its partners will have control over 265 stations in 44 states and the District of Columbia, covering 80% of U.S. television households in total.
Sook noted that the company has been making “good progress” on its path to closing. Tegna’s definitive proxy statement has been filed with a shareholder vote scheduled for Nov. 18. Once the federal government reopens from its shutdown, Nexstar will then file its FCC applications. The company is still on track in its plans to close the transaction by the second half of 2026.
