Nexstar Broadcasting Group - Television Stations

Television Stations

These stations are either owned and operated by Nexstar, or controlled by Nexstar through management services agreements (MSAs) with Sinclair Broadcast Group. Prior to October 2011, Nexstar operated television stations that were owned by the Four Points Media Group; however, on September 8, 2011, Sinclair announced its intent of purchasing the Four Points stations outright and took over the MSA for the stations that October upon Federal Trade Commission (FTC) approval of the deal (the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) gave final approval of the group deal on December 21, and the Sinclair purchase of the Four Points stations was completed on January 1, 2012). Nexstar also holds the license of one station which is currently operated by Newport Television through an MSA (Sinclair announced its purchase of that station's MSA partner in July 2012; that company will take over the MSA for that station upon the completion of the purchase). Most of the stations Nexstar owns and operates were acquired through the acquisition of Quorum Broadcasting in 2003. Many of these stations are licensed under the Mission Broadcasting brand, operated through MSAs with Nexstar to comply with current FCC ownership limits.

Many viewers of Nexstar owned or operated stations have complained that these stations have lagged far behind other stations in those markets in beginning airing local programming (including newscasts) in high definition. For example, although a couple of stations owned by Four Points Media managed by Nexstar had already been airing high-definition newscasts (though the upgrades occurred prior to Nexstar taking over operations of the stations) and at least one Nexstar duopoly has been airing newscasts in enhanced definition widescreen, it wasn't until April 2011 that the first Nexstar-owned properties began airing newscasts in high definition under its own stewardship.

Each Nexstar cluster also operates its own news website, although they do not use their station branding in the addresses, choosing to use a slogan related to their area. Most local Nexstar sites also have a related .biz site separate from the news site to promote Nexstar's daily local deal efforts, paid "ask the experts" sections, and local advertisers in each market.