Nexstar Media Group closed its acquisition of fellow broadcast station group owner Tegna after sealing regulatory approval, despite antitrust lawsuits filed against the deal in recent days.

Nexstar’s $6.2 billion merger with Tegna brings together more than 260 local broadcast TV affiliate stations across the U.S.

Nexstar and Tegna, like other broadcast station group peers, have been looking to consolidate as the industry faces the same challenges as its cable and entertainment media counterparts — namely the drop in pay-TV customers due to the rise of streaming and tech options.

“This transaction is essential to sustaining strong local journalism in the communities we serve. By bringing these two outstanding companies together, Nexstar will be a stronger, more dynamic enterprise—better positioned to deliver exceptional journalism and local programming with enhanced assets, capabilities, and talent,” Nexstar CEO Perry Sook said in a statement.

“We are grateful to President Trump, [FCC] Chairman Carr, and the DOJ for recognizing the dynamic forces shaping the media landscape and enabling this transaction to move forward.”

In February, President Donald Trump endorsed the merger between Nexstar and Tegna in a TruthSocial post after months of criticism about the potential effects of the deal.

The proposed acquisition, which was announced in August, had been expected to close in the second half of 2026.

Broadcast station owners run the affiliate stations of the major networks like ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox, and are known for airing local news, sports and other broadcast content. The companies remain profitable due to hefty fees they receive from pay-TV distributors, and have argued that consolidation would preserve local TV news.

However, decades-old laws have prevented such mergers from happening in recent years.

The greenlight from the FCC and DOJ allows the deal to go through by waiving law that prevents any one company from owning broadcast stations that reach more than 39% of the U.S. TV households.

However, in recent days two federal antitrust lawsuits were filed in a move to block the merger — one from attorney generals in eight states, including California and New York, and another from satellite and streaming TV provider DirecTV.

The lawsuits each argue that the combination is anticompetitive and would drive up customer costs, reduce competition, lead to the closure of local newsrooms and cause TV blackouts of stations due to carriage fights with distributors over pricing.

“DIRECTV supports the action taken by the states and has determined it is necessary to join this effort to protect competition and consumers,” said Michael Hartman, general counsel and chief external affairs officer at DirecTV in a release. “We have consistently made clear that this merger is anti-competitive and not in the public interest and, if it goes forward, will trigger a wave of similar consolidation.”

Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav‘s potential payout of more than $800 million from the Paramount Skydance deal highlights an obscure tax rule originally designed to limit CEO pay.

According to SEC filings, Zaslav could collect hundreds of millions of dollars in severance and other stock awards and payments following Paramount’s acquisition of WBD. The payments include about $500 million in share awards, about $115 million in vested stock awards and $34 million in cash, according to the filings.

The deal also includes up to $335 million in potential payments to Zaslav for what’s known as the “golden parachute” excise tax. The tax was originally created by Congress in the 1980s to limit what many considered to be outsized payouts to chief executives upon a change of control or sale of their companies. The tax, of 20%, kicks in when an executive’s payout exceeds three times their typical base salary and target annual bonus.

As part of the acquisition, Paramount agreed to pay Zaslav’s excise tax if his other payments trigger the tax. The reimbursement declines over time and drops to zero if the deal closes in 2027. Paramount has said it is aiming to close the deal, pending regulatory approval, by this fall.

The Paramount board said the reimbursement would be paid by Paramount, not Warner shareholders.

Without the payment, known as a “gross up,” the board said “Mr. Zaslav would be at a substantial disadvantage in terms of excise tax exposure relative to the previously proposed transaction with Netflix,” which wouldn’t have involved a golden parachute tax.

Zaslav’s payout from the deal is expected to be around $667 million without the tax.

Management experts have said that rather than limiting pay, the golden parachute rules have instead incentivized CEOs to sell their companies and reap ever-higher rewards. The tax has also led companies, and their shareholders, to spend even more to pay the special taxes.

“Over time, especially as executive compensation radically shifted toward stock-based pay, golden parachutes have become increasingly lucrative, platinum in many cases,” said Jeffrey Gordon, co-director of Columbia Law School’s Ira M. Millstein Center for Global Markets and Corporate Ownership, wrote in a paper. “Even if there is pain among those who are laid off when the firm is sold and layoffs occur, there is plainly one winner: the CEO with a golden parachute.”

Spring is traditionally the busiest season for home sales, and while this year’s market dynamics have shifted strongly in favor of buyers, broader forces in the economy are creating significant challenges.

The most important factor in any season is mortgage rates. They were expected to be lower this year, as the Federal Reserve dropped its lending rate to counter inflation, but the war with Iran has turned that on its head. The cost of oil is shooting higher, leading to rising inflation and causing the Fed to reconsider.

Now, U.S. interest rates are rising, with mortgage rates following suit.

The average rate on the popular 30-year-fixed mortgage had started this year lower, even briefly dipping below 6% at the end of February, but it rose sharply this week to 6.53% on Friday, the first day of spring, according to Mortgage News Daily. It is now just 18 basis points below where it was a year ago.

Higher rates will weigh on affordability, but other factors have flipped the market in favor of buyers. Homes are sitting on the market longer, sellers are increasingly willing to lower prices and the supply of homes for sale is rising, albeit not as quickly as it should be.

“As the housing market approaches the ‘best time to sell’ season, it sits in a precarious position, caught between long-term improvements and sudden short-term instability,” Jake Krimmel, senior economist at Realtor.com, wrote in a Weekly Housing Trends report. “Everything seems much more unsettled and uncertain than it did just a month ago.”

For the week ending March 14, active inventory was up 5.6% year-over-year, according to Realtor.com, but new listings were down 1.4%.

This means the number of homes for sale is climbing not because there are so many more sellers, but because the homes on the market are sitting. That may be because potential sellers who expected to put their homes on the market are holding back due to concerns about the implications of the Iran war.

“I think inventory is the bigger decider,” said Jonathan Miller, director of markets for StreetMatrix, a housing market data provider. “The idea that rates are going to noticeably come down this year, I think, is generally off the table.”

As for new construction, buyers are likely to see better deals this spring, as builders are struggling to unload an oversupply of homes. Inventories hit a 9.7-month supply in January, according to the U.S. Census, as the result of sales falling to the lowest level since 2022. A growing share of builders cut prices in March, according to the National Association of Home Builders.

“Affordability for buyers and builders remains a top concern,” Bill Owens, chairman of the NAHB, said in a release. “Many buyers remain on the fence waiting for lower interest rates and due to economic uncertainty. Builders are facing elevated land, labor and construction costs and nearly two-thirds continue to offer sales incentives in a bid to firm up the market.”

Construction of single-family homes also dropped in January. While some are blaming rough winter weather for the weakness in the new home market, builders are consistently battling affordability for both their customers and their own bottom lines. Costs for land, labor and materials have not eased.

“I think this is not going to be an inspiring year for the housing market. It started out with high expectations. I think the war, whatever the outcome, has really dampened enthusiasm and kept uncertainty really high,” Miller said.