A proposed merger between the parent companies of two of Denver’s top TV news operations could result in layoffs, consolidation and programming changes, according to media experts.
Fox31 KDVR parent company Nexstar Media Group, based in Irving, Texas, on Tuesday said it planned to acquire Virginia-based Tegna Inc., the owner of Denver NBC affiliate 9News KUSA, in an industry-shaking deal worth $6.2 billion. The proposal still requires federal approval.
“What’s happening in Denver isn’t just a local or even national media story,” said Laura Frank, a professor of media and journalism studies at the University of Denver. “This is part of a much bigger pattern we’ve seen across industries.”
Nexstar oversees more than 200 owned and partner stations in the U.S., while Tegna owns 64. If the deal goes through, as it’s expected to in the latter half of 2026, Nexstar will quickly find efficiencies by cutting staff and combining news operations, experts said, while syndicating its existing content on the newly acquired stations.
Denver is the 17th largest TV news market in the U.S., with a metro population of 4.6 million, and 1.8 million regular viewers, according to 2023 data from the National Association of Broadcasters. The Denver/Aurora market is the largest in Colorado, followed by Boulder, along with Colorado Springs and Fort Collins, the Colorado Broadcasters Association said.
The Nexstar-Tegna announcement follows an aggressive push for deregulation by the Federal Communications Commission, which oversees media ownership in the U.S., and a recent federal court ruling friendly to media consolidation. President Donald Trump’s administration has long advocated for a loosening of what it calls overly restrictive media-ownership regulations, and current FCC chairman Brendan Carr in March vowed to “delete, delete, delete” outdated regulations.
Nexstar said Tuesday that the deal will help it give advertisers a bigger variety of local and national broadcast and digital advertising options. The result will be more concentrated ownership in an industry desperately looking for an advantage amid streaming services, podcasts, digital newsletters and other competitors to legacy news media, according to industry analysts.
But when consolidation takes over, in any industry, communities often lose something essential, Frank said. Examples include airlines cutting service, department stores losing their local identity, and radio stations losing local voices.
“Its particular approach and voice could vanish not because it failed, but because efficiency demanded it,” she said of 9News.
The larger news ecosystem would also take a hit if the deal goes through, said Kimberly A. Spencer, director of the Colorado Media Project.
“This consolidation is deeply concerning because it doesn’t happen in a vacuum,” she said. “It risks weakening a commercial anchor institution like 9News at the very same time that our public media, which is a lifeline for many rural areas, is facing its own funding crisis.”
That presents a dual threat to both commercial and public institutions, since it would leave a hole that smaller, hyperlocal outlets often do not have the resources to fill, she said. The result would accelerate the growth of news deserts across Colorado, she added.
Tegna and Nexstar, which both declined comment to The Denver Post for this story, have said in statements that they will continue to support editorial independence at their stations. But the award-winning brand identity that 9News prides itself on could, for example, go away as investigations and commentary weaken or vanish due to such consolidation.
“By and large, these transactions create synergies and, needless to say, when that happens, you are going to see a trimming of costs,” said Francisco R. Montero, a Virginia-based attorney and adviser to the Colorado Broadcasting Association. “That could be in the back office, or in a reduction of workforce for positions that have become redundant. You might also see some of Nexstar’s programming suddenly appear on Tegna stations as they get access to it.”
The argument for deregulation hinges on the fact that U.S. media ownership rules were largely written before the digital age, making it difficult for TV stations, newspapers and radio stations to compete with Google — which offers news, video, audio and other content rolled into one, said Montero, co-managing partner at Fletcher, Heald & Hildreth.
“How are you going to prevent an AM radio station from owning a newspaper in the same market these days? The argument is that it puts legacy media at an unfair advantage,” he said. “It’s like regulating typewriter ribbons in a digital world.”
Even as the battle lines have shifted dramatically, local ratings have remained steady, according to Comscore data.
NBC affiliate 9News draws the most viewers to its daily newscasts, followed by KDVR (Fox), KCNC (CBS), KMGH (ABC) and KWGN (The CW, which is also owned by Nexstar), Comscore reported. Leaders 9News and Fox31 have frequently jockeyed for the top position in the Denver-Aurora market over the last five years, Comscore has reported.
That said, Denver TV stations are increasingly averse to confirming ratings numbers, preferring to downplay traditional viewership while highlighting online visitors and digital gains. Most have stopped publicly citing Comscore, which tracks viewership and provides custom reports to paid clients, despite paying close attention to it internally, according to media experts The Post interviewed.
The larger moves toward consolidation follow a July action by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, which vacated the FCC’s “top four” rule long prohibiting ownership of more than one of the top four stations in a single market. The ruling is still subject to a monthslong assessment by the FCC, but could significantly clear the way for future mergers in the industry.
In company earnings calls held in early August, before Tegna and Nexstar publicly confirmed merger talks, both Tegna CEO Michael Steib and Nexstar CEO Perry Sook pointed directly to this ruling, and applauded the FCC’s aggressive new commitment to the deregulation agenda as a whole.
“We believe that deregulation is necessary, important and coming,” Steib said in Tegna’s Aug. 7 call, noting that local broadcasters are “up against big tech competitors who have absolutely no encumbrances in how they compete.”
A local TV station swap in Colorado Springs last month essentially created a duopoly when Gray Media and KOAA News5 (NBC) parent company E.W. Scripps acquired KKTV (CBS), as well as western Colorado’s KKCO (NBC) and the low-power station KJCT-LP (ABC), according to KOAA.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.