backKing & Spalding is representing DIRECTV, which filed a federal antitrust lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California, Sacramento Division, alleging that the proposed merger between broadcast giants Nexstar Media Group and TEGNA violates the federal antitrust laws and would significantly harm consumers.
On April 17, 2026, U.S. District Judge Troy Nunley issued a preliminary injunction blocking the integration of Nexstar Media Group and Tegna. The judge said that the plaintiffs have "demonstrated a prima facie case that the merger creates a 'reasonable probability of anticompetitive effect.'" The complaint asserted that the proposed merger—which combines the nation’s largest and second-largest English-language broadcast station groups—represents a concentration of broadcast media without precedent, and will irreparably drive up consumer costs, reduce local competition, shutter local newsrooms, and increase both the frequency and duration of blackouts of key local sports teams and network programming. DIRECTV’s action followed a multistate lawsuit filed in the same court by attorneys general from California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, and Virginia.
The King & Spalding team includes Olivier N. Antoine, Emily Blackburn, Laura Harris, Sean Royall, Greg Scott, Josh Hazan, Christopher Costello, Sean Murray, Arthur Schoen, Cyriel Danneels, Connor Brewer, and Larissa Ruffo Roberto Daruge.