{"id":7992217,"date":"2026-04-03T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/?p=7992217"},"modified":"2026-04-03T15:25:20","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T22:25:20","slug":"state-attorneys-general-nexstar-tegna-paramount-warner-bros-antitrust","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/industry-news\/deals-ma\/state-attorneys-general-nexstar-tegna-paramount-warner-bros-antitrust\/","title":{"rendered":"State AGs Are Pushing Back Against Media Consolidation. Is It Too Late?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n

As further media consolidation is poised to reshape Hollywood and local TV stations across the U.S., state attorneys general may represent the last line of defense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Historically, state AGs have worked in tandem with federal regulators like the Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission on antitrust enforcement. But under the Trump administration, M&A regulation has taken a radical turn. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe federal government is retreating from its traditional role, abdicating its responsibility to enforce antitrust law and seemingly picking winners and losers,\u201d California Attorney General Rob Bonta told TheWrap.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s forcing the state AGs to play a more central role in deciding whether some of the biggest deals in the U.S. will reduce competition and hurt consumers. Among them are the recently approved $6.2 billion merger of Nexstar and Tegna, which creates a massive local TV giant that reaches 80% of U.S. households, and Paramount\u2019s pending $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, which could eliminate or downsize one of the major U.S. studios and consolidate two historic news organizations  \u2014 CBS News and CNN \u2014 under a single owner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the case of Nexstar-Tegna, DirecTV and state attorneys general led by California and New York sued to block the deal, warning it would \u201cirreparably drive up consumer costs, reduce local competition, shutter local newsrooms and increase both frequency and duration of blackouts of key local teams and network programming.\u201d Despite receiving federal approval by the DOJ and FCC and closing minutes later, a judge has put Nexstar-Tegna on hold with a temporary restraining order and will hear arguments on Tuesday \u2014 a victory that experts say could embolden the state AGs to more aggressively go after Paramount-WBD.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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California Attorney General Rob Bonta (Mel Melcon\/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

While Bonta has warned he’d be “vigorous” in California’s review of Paramount-WBD, he told TheWrap that state AGs are still weighing whether they’ll sue to block it as the regulatory review process continues to play out with U.S. and international agencies. He declined to disclose an exact timeline on when that may be decided, but emphasized they\u2019re prepared to \u201cact timely\u201d if they choose to do so. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe see the red flags with these two proposed mergers,\u201d Bonta said. \u201cWe will ensure that the needed and necessary antitrust enforcement job required for these types of proposed mergers gets done, even if the federal government is abdicating their responsibility and refusing to do their job.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though the federal government\u2019s \u201crefusal to participate in good faith and do the job that needs to be done is unfortunate,\u201d Bonta argued that state AGs have \u201cconcurrent jurisdiction\u201d and can \u201cdo everything and anything the federal government can do.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf they won’t do it and we decide to do it, we have all the authority and power, weight of the law and standing to sue that they would have,\u201d he said. \u201cThe cases will stand and fall based on the strength of the case, facts and law, not who\u2019s bringing it. If the federal government is allowing mergers to occur that break the law, that doesn\u2019t make our challenge to those cases any weaker, it just means that the federal government failed to do their job.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In other words, game on.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Nexstarlogo\"\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t
\n\t\t\tRead Next<\/strong>
\n\t\t\tNexstar Says It Can't Fully Comply With Tegna Merger's Temporary Restraining Order<\/a>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Nexstar-Tegna is a critical moment<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s been a mixed track record of success for state AGs. In 2024, they successfully blocked the Kroger-Albertsons merger, in which they were aligned with the FTC but secured a permanent injunction under a separate, independent challenge. But in 2020, they failed to block the Sprint-T-Mobile merger, which was approved by the DOJ with conditions, suggesting that federal approval still carries persuasive weight with courts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Regulatory and government investigations attorney Braden Perry acknowledged that state AGs face structural disadvantages, such as \u201csmaller litigation budgets, narrower statutory authority and state antitrust frameworks that weren’t designed to address national media consolidation.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But he argues their enforcement posture in 2026 is \u201cfar more aggressive and sophisticated\u201d than during Sprint-T-Mobile and that courts appear to be more receptive to the argument that \u201cfederal inaction or inadequate action doesn\u2019t foreclose independent state review.\u201d He added that an outright block isn\u2019t the only measure of success for AGs, who can still extract meaningful concessions like divestitures, pricing commitments, or content access guarantees that reshape the final terms of a transaction. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhether or not any individual challenge succeeds, the cumulative effect is that dealmakers now have to factor state-level risk into their calculus from day one,\u201d Perry said. \u201cThat’s a meaningful change in how these transactions get structured and negotiated.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Experts said that the temporary restraining order against Nexstar-Tegna is a \u201csignificant moment\u201d for state AG antitrust enforcement in the media space after Judge Troy Nunley found that DirecTV and state AGs established a likelihood of success on the merits of their lawsuit. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf a court is willing to pause a closed transaction over state-level antitrust concerns when the federal government took a pass, it establishes that state AGs have viable enforcement tools in this space,\u201d Perry added. \u201cThe broader signal is that dealmakers can no longer treat federal clearance as the finish line.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

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