In response to an FCC ruling in March proposing a $1.2 million fine against Nexstar and a ruling that Mission Broadcasting sell WPIX, Nexstar has filled a response arguing that the FCC’s Notice of Apparent Liability for Forfeiture (NAL) “is unlawful and the proposed forfeiture, divestiture obligations, and other requirements must be canceled and the NAL vacated in its entirety.”
The filing came in response to a March 21 ruling by the FCC that imposed heavy fines on Nexstar and Mission Broadcasting for ownership violations. The FCC imposed fines on Nexstar of $1,224,790 and Mission $612,395 for the violations. It is also sought to remedy the ownership issues by having Mission either sell WPIX in New York to an independent third party that has no relationship to Nexstar or to have Nexstar buy WPIX and divest other stations so it is under the ownership cap.
The controversy dates back to the acquisition of the Tribune TV stations by Nexstar in 2018 and Nexstar's subsequent decision to sell WPIX to Mission Broadcasting to reduce its station ownership footprint to comply with FCC rules. The FCC approved ownership transfer and a local market agreement that allowed Nexstar to operate the station but in the March 21, 2024 NAL cited features of the Nexstar/WPIX relationship that indicated Nexstar is exercising too much control over WPIX during retransmission consent negotiations.
In response, Nexstar argued that the FCC would “deem unlawful and destroy commercial agreements between Nexstar and Mission Broadcasting, Inc. that were expressly approved by the FCC under the prior administration, and…force station divestitures by Nexstar and/or Mission in contravention of existing law and precedent. The NAL’s analysis and penalties contradict existing FCC rules and authority, contravene the Communications Act and the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), and violate Nexstar’s constitutional rights in multiple respects.”
“Through the NAL, the Commission seeks to wield its enforcement authority in a myriad of improper ways,” Nexstar’s lawyers contended in the filing. “It argues that Nexstar violated the Communications Act by performing the express terms of agreements that the FCC previously reviewed and approved. It seeks to rewrite FCC rules without a notice-and-comment rulemaking proceeding. It adopts new interpretations of FCC rules that are unsupported or even contradicted by precedent without prior notice or reasoned explanation. It creates entirely new regulatory requirements without prior notice or due process. It applies standards that are vague and unsupportable. To the extent that the Commission now quarrels with the FCC rules on the books or the decisions of the past, it should pursue those policy objectives through notice-and-comment rulemaking proceedings that will allow all affected parties to be heard and ensure even-handed treatment across the industry. It should not pursue those objectives through an inequitable enforcement proceeding that penalizes Nexstar for relying on FCC approvals and following existing regulations and applicable law.”
“At its core, the NAL seeks to undo FCC-approved agreements pursuant to which Nexstar, Mission, and WPIX have been operating since 2020,” the filing stressed. “These agreements, which include a Local Programming and Marketing Agreement (LPMA) and an agreement that provides Nexstar with the option to acquire WPIX from Mission (Nexstar-Mission Option) (together, the `WPIX Arrangement'), were reviewed and approved by the FCC in late 2020 as a part of Mission’s acquisition of WPIX. Nonetheless, the NAL now finds that the very same LPMA confers de facto control of WPIX to Nexstar.”
“Because the NAL is based on unlawful interpretations of Commission rules and precedent, violates Nexstar’s constitutional rights, and otherwise runs afoul of the Administrative Procedure Act and the Communications Act, it must be canceled and vacated in its entirety,” the filing concludes.
