Broadcasters have dramatically ramped up lobbying in 2025 to push for the elimination of national TV station ownership caps, with major players like Nexstar Media Group and Sinclair Broadcast Group spending millions as the FCC showed openness to rule changes and big mergers loomed, according to a new OpenSecrets report.
Nexstar Media Group, the largest U.S. TV station owner, spent $3.2 million lobbying the FCC in 2025—roughly 10 times its typical annual amount from 2018 to 2023, when spending stayed steady. This surge tied directly to its proposed $6.2 billion acquisition of Tegna, announced in 2025, which would require lifting or easing the current 39% national audience reach cap to proceed.
Sinclair Broadcast Group, the second-largest owner, spent $800,000 on federal lobbying last year—up from $770,000 in 2024 and about four times its 2023 total—as it explored potential deals like acquiring E.W. Scripps.
To influence the FCC, Congress, and the White House, Nexstar hired lobbyist Jeff Miller, finance chair of President Donald Trump’s second inaugural committee and head of Miller Strategies, in early 2025.
Nexstar paid the firm $510,000, though most of its efforts came from in-house lobbyists. Tegna, in its first year of lobbying, spent $550,000 solely with Miller Strategies. Together, the firm earned over $1 million from the potential Nexstar-Tegna deal alone.
Broadcasters argue the 39% cap—enacted by Congress in 2004—puts them at a severe disadvantage against big tech and streaming services that have dominated TV advertising and subscriptions over the past 15 years.
The 2025 activity intensified amid multiple deals needing regulatory relief: Nexstar's Tegna purchase, Sinclair's talks for Scripps, and station swaps or acquisitions by groups like Scripps and Gray.