Nexstar Media Group, Inc. chairman and chief executive officer, Perry Sook has responded to the FCC’s action regarding the Company’s relationship with WPIX in New York City.
Last week, the FCC fined the station group and Mission Broadcasting $1.2 million and ordered them to sell WPIX in New York City or other stations to comply with ownership rules.
“We are extremely disappointed in today’s action by the Federal Communication Commission regarding our relationship with WPIX-TV and we intend to dispute it vigorously,” said Sook. “We believe the FCC has been misled by the often distracting noise in the media ecosphere and that it has completely misjudged the facts. The facts are that Nexstar has always complied with FCC regulations and that its relationship with WPIX-TV under a Local Marketing Agreement (LMA) was approved by the FCC in 2020, when WPIX-TV was purchased by Mission Broadcasting, Inc. Nexstar believes that joint operating, shared service, and local marketing agreements like those in which it is engaged are vitally important to maintain a competitive media marketplace and to enable broadcasters to continue investing in local news, investigative journalism, and other services that they uniquely provide to the communities in which they are located.”