Nexstar Wants To Be Undisputed King of Local Media

On Dec. 3, Sook’s Nexstar Media Group bought Tribune Media for $6.4 billion, including debt. It’s a deal will make the Dallas-based Nexstar–which presently owns or operates 171 stations across the U.S., most of which are broadcast affiliates in small to medium-sized DMAs–the largest owner of local TV stations in the U.S. with more than 200 stations that cover about 39 percent of TV homes.

The deal will also give the company a presence in America’s three largest markets for the first time: New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.

Nexstar was able to swoop in and strike the deal with the Chicago-based company after Tribune’s deal with Maryland-based Sinclair Broadcast Group was terminated in August amid concerns from the Federal Communications, led by FCC commissioner (and Trump appointee) Ajit Pai, who said the conservative-skewing Sinclair breached its contract by misleading regulators during the transaction’s approval process.

Sook told Variety that Nexstar is bracing for what will surely be a long regulatory review of the Tribune acquisition. He says fully aware of the 15-month Sinclair-Tribune dealmaking process that resulted in disaster, and claims Nexstar is ready to make necessary divestitures to comply with FCC rules — something Sinclair failed to do.

So, who is Sook? Well, TV Newser reports he’s a Northeast Pennsylvania native who actually got his start as a radio DJ in Punxsutawney, Pa., and later briefly worked as a news anchor in Clarksburg, WV. But he was drawn to the sales side of the business. He worked for Cox and the national advertising sales rep firm Telerep. Sook founded Nexstar in 1996 with one station in Scranton.