Nexstar Media Group argues that regulatory relief and increased scale are essential for local television broadcasters to compete against dominant Big Tech platforms and preserve trusted community journalism.

Key Points

• Big Tech companies, including Google, Meta, and TikTok, now control a significant majority of the advertising market, projected to reach 65% by 2026.
• YouTube alone generated more video advertising revenue last year than the entire broadcast television industry combined.
• The newspaper industry lost nearly 270,000 jobs over the last two decades due to the rise of digital competitors and shifting advertising models.
• Nexstar Media Group, which employs 18,000 people, argues that its acquisition of TEGNA is necessary to maintain the viability of local news production.
• Local broadcasters currently produce over 300,000 hours of news annually, serving as a primary source of verified information for American communities.

Why it Matters

The decline of local news outlets threatens the availability of fact-based reporting and civic engagement in communities across the United States. If broadcasters cannot achieve the scale necessary to compete with algorithm-driven social media platforms, the loss of local journalism could further accelerate the spread of misinformation.