August 19, 2025
A Statement from Brenda Victoria Castillo, President & CEO of the National Hispanic Media Coalition (NHMC)
Today, Nexstar—the largest owner of broadcast stations in the country—announced its plans to acquire Tegna in a mega merger, resulting in the largest media consolidation for local TV stations in modern history if approved by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). NHMC calls on the FCC to uphold its longstanding limits on broadcast market ownership and to deny the Nexstar TEGNA merger and its unprecedented proposal for market control.
Competition and variety in media are fundamental American values and practices. When local TV stations are all owned by a common company, they all report the same news, regurgitate the same corporate talking points, and limit the viewpoints available to our communities. A healthy media environment has a diverse array of owners and provides viewers with a reliable source for the latest current events, a balance of opinion pieces, and a truthful report of information affecting our nation and families. The local broadcasting cap—which limits one single company from owning more than 39% of a local tv market— was put into place by Congress twenty years ago, and has protected our country from propaganda machines across the world and at home. The Nexstar TEGNA proposed mega merger will unify local stations and fortify a media infrastructure that silences voices of opposition and replaces honest reporting with political propaganda.
As NHMC has urged the Commission since 2014, broadcast ownership caps for local TV serve as a line of defense against anti-democratic regimes and ensure that freedom of the press reaches every household in America. Just earlier this month, NHMC filed comments with the FCC to reiterate the importance of diversity in media ownership both in the sense of competition and equity. In the Commission’s most recent report on media ownership in broadcasting released earlier this year, women held a majority stake in only 10 percent of stations, while Latinos held the majority stake in only 6 percent of stations.
This is a time to protect our foundational American values, like our freedom of the press and expression, not render them empty promises. NHMC calls on FCC Chairman Carr to be a statesman and uphold the Commission’s Congressional mandate to preserve a healthy media ecosystem.
Yours in the Movement,
Brenda Victoria Castillo
President & CEO
National Hispanic Media Coalition
