Nexstar Media Group

Nexstar Media Group is the largest local television broadcaster in the United States and one of the most important companies in the country’s local-news infrastructure. Its 2025 accounts show a business still highly cash-generative, but exposed to the political-advertising cycle, cable decline and heavy debt. Revenue fell 8.5% to $4.95 billion, mainly because 2025 was not a major election year: advertising revenue dropped 18.9% to $1.96 billion, while distribution revenue, the fees paid by cable, satellite and streaming-TV distributors to carry Nexstar stations and networks, was essentially flat at $2.92 billion, down only $4 million from 2024. Net income attributable to Nexstar fell sharply from $722 million to $109 million, hit not only by weaker advertising but also by a $381 million non-cash impairment on its stake in TV Food Network.

Nexstar Media Group: key financial indicators 2024–2025

Source: Nexstar Media Group, Inc., Form 10-K for the year ended 31 December 2025, filed 26 February 2026. Figures reported in US dollars.

Nexstar’s scale is enormous. At the end of 2025, the company owned, operated, programmed or provided sales and other services to 201 full-power television stations and one AM radio station in 116 US markets. Its owned stations reach about 39% of US television households after applying the FCC’s UHF discount; including partner stations and excluding the discount, the reach is about 70%. The group also owns 80.8% of The CW, the fifth US broadcast network; NewsNation, a national news network reaching about 58 million television households; Antenna TV and Rewind TV; The Hill; and a 31.3% stake in TV Food Network.

Nexstar Media Group: media asset map

Signals

Local news at industrial scale. Nexstar says its stations and business units produce more than 317,000 hours of programming a year and employ around 6,000 journalists. That makes it a central actor in US local news, especially in smaller and mid-sized markets where broadcast television remains one of the main sources of public information.

Distribution fees are the stabiliser. Advertising fell sharply in 2025, but distribution revenue barely moved, declining by only $4 million. Nexstar says subscriber losses at traditional cable and satellite providers were offset by annual rate increases, growth in virtual pay-TV subscribers and new CW affiliations, showing how retransmission and carriage fees now anchor the local-TV model.

Political advertising drives the cycle. The biggest revenue swing came from politics: advertising revenue fell by $456 million, including a $446 million drop in political advertising after the 2024 election year. Nexstar’s large footprint in contested markets makes election years especially profitable, tying a major part of the company’s economics directly to US campaign spending.

Consolidation is the growth strategy. Nexstar entered 2026 seeking approval for its $6.2 billion acquisition of TEGNA. If completed, the combined company and its partners would have 265 full-power stations in 132 markets, covering around 80% of US television households. The business logic is scale; the public-interest question is how much local news infrastructure should sit inside one company.

Cable decline is already visible. The $381 million impairment of TV Food Network is a warning signal from inside Nexstar’s own portfolio. The company attributed the write-down to softness in linear cable advertising, declining pay-TV subscribers and the shift of audiences toward streaming and digital platforms.

Debt limits the room for manoeuvre. Nexstar ended 2025 with $6.33 billion in total outstanding debt, even after reducing borrowings during the year. The company still generated $891 million in operating cash flow, but high leverage means a substantial share of that cash must support interest, debt service, dividends, acquisitions and refinancing needs.