NEXSTAR MEDIA GROUP INC

Company Overview

We are a leading diversified media company that produces and distributes engaging local and national news, sports and entertainment content across our television and digital platforms, including more than 310,000 hours of programming produced annually by our business units. Nexstar owns America’s largest local television broadcasting group comprised of top network affiliates, with over 200 owned or partner stations in 117 U.S. markets in 40 states and the District of Columbia reaching over 220 million people. Nexstar’s national television properties include a 75% interest in The CW Network, LLC (“The CW”), America’s fifth major broadcast network, NewsNation, America’s fastest-growing national cable news network in primetime, popular entertainment multicast networks Antenna TV and REWIND TV, and a 31.3% ownership stake in TV Food Network. The Company’s portfolio of digital assets, including its local TV station websites, The Hill and NewsNationNow.com, is collectively a Top 10 U.S. digital news and information property, attracting almost 99 million unique users for December 2023 according to Comscore.

We are a Delaware corporation formed in 1996. Our principal offices are at 545 E. John Carpenter Freeway, Suite 700, Irving, TX 75062. Our telephone number is (972) 373-8800 and our website ishttp://www.nexstar.tv. The information contained on, or accessible through, our website is not part of this Annual Report on Form 10-K and is not incorporated herein by reference.

Competitive Strengths

Unique Combination of Scaled Local Audiences and Powerful National Reach. We are the largest local television broadcasting company in the United States, generating $4.9 billion of revenue for the year ended December 31, 2023. Our and our partners’ over 200 broadcast stations in 117 local markets reach approximately 70% of U.S. television households (without applying the FCC UHF discount), which local reach is augmented by the national reach we have via our broadcast network, The CW, and our cable news network, NewsNation. According to Nielsen, The CW Network reaches 125 million television households, equal to the reach of the ABC, CBS, FOX and NBC broadcast networks, and NewsNation reaches approximately 69 million television households, virtually equivalent to the reach of CNN, Fox News and MSNBC. Together, Nexstar can provide both national reach and activation of local audiences at scale, representing a differentiated and attractive value proposition for advertisers and brands in an increasingly fragmented marketplace.

Leading Local Franchises. We are focused on building and maintaining leading local franchises in our 117 local markets which are core to our business model. In total, we employ approximately 6,000 journalists and 1,600 salespeople, produce over 310,000 hours of programming, and have developed relationships with over 40,000 advertisers. Each of the stations that we own, operate, program, or provide sales and other services to creates a highly recognizable local brand, primarily through the quality of local news programming, extensive local sports coverage, and community presence. We rank among the top two stations in local news viewership in over 79% of our markets in which we produce local newscasts, according to Comscore for November 2023 late news ratings. In 2023, journalists at our stations won 545 awards for their reporting, including 42 Edward R. Murrow awards and 117 Emmy awards. We also employ a high-quality local sales force in each of our markets to increase revenue from local advertisers by capitalizing on our investment in local programming and community websites. In even-numbered years, when most elections are held, we historically have generated substantial revenue from locally driven political advertising. Given our diverse and expansive geographic reach, we have television stations in more than 80% of markets where there were contested political elections in 2022. In addition, we own or provide services to more than one station in certain markets to enable us to broaden our audience share, enhance our revenue share and achieve significant operating efficiencies. For the year ended December 31, 2023, excluding our owned network assets, the Company earned approximately 71% of its core and political advertising revenue from non-network programming.

Strong National Brands. We have a portfolio of scaled, strong national brands that enables us to engage with national advertisers in more meaningful ways than we have in the past. Our primary national brands include The CW, NewsNation and The Hill. The CW is America’s fifth national broadcast network. NewsNation is America’s fastest growing cable news network in primetime attracting top on-air talent to its ranks given its mission of delivering fact-based, unbiased journalism. The Hill is the nation’s leading, independent political digital media platform.

Diversified Revenue Streams. Our revenue streams are diversified by geography, affiliation and source. In 2023, we generated 55% of our revenue from distribution, 34% from core advertising (of which approximately 68% was from local sources), 1% from political advertising and 10% from digital advertising and other sources. No single customer generated more than 15% of our revenue; no single market generated more than 3% of our revenue; and our affiliations are diverse with no network representing more than 25% of our 2023 combined core and political advertising net revenue.

Intense Operational Focus. We emphasize strict controls on operating and programming costs in order to increase net income, EBITDA and free cash flow. We continually seek to identify and implement cost savings at each of our stations, the stations we provide services to and other business units, and our overall size benefits each station or business unit with respect to negotiating favorable terms with programming suppliers and other vendors. By leveraging our size and corporate management expertise, we are able to achieve economies of scale by providing programming, financial, sales and marketing support to our stations, the stations we provide services to and other business units. Our operational execution expertise is the direct result of our talented management team. We seek to attract and retain corporate, business unit and station general managers with proven track records by providing equity incentives.

Attractive Financial Profile. In 2023 and 2022, we generated total net revenue of $4.9 billion and $5.2 billion, respectively, generated net cash flow from operating activities of nearly $1 billion and $1.4 billion, respectively, and returned a significant percentage of that cash flow to shareholders in the form of share repurchases and dividends—$796 million in 2023 and $1.0 billion in 2022—while maintaining a corporate credit rating of Ba3 / BB+ as rated by Moody’s / S&P. We believe we have the financial flexibility to invest in both organic and inorganic growth initiatives while continuing to return capital to our shareholders.

Growth Strategies

We continually seek to generate revenue, net income, EBITDA and cash flow growth through the following strategies:

Leverage Our Scale. As the largest local television broadcaster with significant, scaled national media properties, we believe we are an important partner for the major broadcast networks, multichannel video programming distributors (“MVPDs”) and online video distributors (“OVDs”), and advertisers. We believe we are one of the largest affiliate groups for each of our major broadcast network partners and we are an important partner for the MVPDs and OVDs which include our content in their consumer offerings. For national advertisers we have a collection of national networks/properties including The CW, NewsNation, Antenna TV and The Hill as well as television stations covering 70% of the country (without applying the FCC UHF discount) including 8 of the top 10 and 18 of the top 25 DMAs. Our digital assets attract an audience that makes us a top ten digital news and information property, according to Comscore. Our scale provides us with unique operating advantages in the form of services we can provide to our advertisers, audience and employees, a platform for growth and operating expense synergies and access to capital. As part of this strategy, in 2023, we centralized our national advertising sales in house in order to drive advertising sales across our diversified media portfolio by further emphasizing our client-first approach, combined with a new data-driven, multi-platform focus.

Continue to Grow Distribution and Advertising Revenues. We believe our core business of distribution and advertising revenue has the potential to continue to grow. We believe that the share of audience that our content generates for MVPDs and OVDs is greater than the share of fees those platforms pay us and that broadcast advertising continues to provide commercial and political advertisers with access to the broadest television audience available. In addition, we are focused on better monetizing our digital content and audience and growing our portfolio of digital products, services and content and associated revenue streams, including apps for NewsNation, The Hill and other local television station content.

Improve and Expand National Broadcast and Cable Networks. We seek to continue to increase the viewership, revenues and profitability of our national television network assets, The CW and NewsNation.

The CW. As the largest affiliate of The CW, we acquired the network in September 2022 (for no consideration) in order to sustain and grow our CW-related revenue streams and to improve this underexploited national broadcast network asset. Our growth strategy for The CW is to cost efficiently improve and diversify the programming to better align with broadcast audiences with the intention of improving ratings and revenue (both distribution and advertising) and reducing programming and other operating costs. Recognizing the importance of live sports and other sports programming to broadcast audiences, in 2023, we launched CW Sports, a sports programming division of The CW. Since then, we have added sports programming to the network’s primetime line-up including Inside the NFL, 100 Days to Indy, and our exclusive broadcast rights to WWE NXT beginning in 2024. CW Sports also expanded the number of hours of network programming on the weekend in 2023 to offer LIV Golf, ACC college football and basketball games, and the future launch of NASCAR Xfinity Series on Saturdays beginning in 2025. We also introduced new, less costly, primetime programming beginning on a limited basis in the summer of 2023 and more substantially with the 2023/2024 broadcast season which began in October 2023. We believe there is potential for The CW to improve its profitability and, together with Nexstar’s CW station affiliates, the overall net profit contribution to Nexstar. In 2023, The CW renewed and expanded its affiliation agreements with key station operators and launched CW Network affiliations on four Nexstar-owned and operated television stations, three of which are in the top-15 television markets.

NewsNation. NewsNation is America’s fastest growing cable news network in primetime and has been recognized by independent watchdog groups such as Ad Fontes Media, NewsGuard and AllSides for its independent, unbiased reporting of national and local news. Currently, NewsNation provides 24 hours of news content each weekday which we expect to expand to seven days a week in 2024. NewsNation was launched in 2020, when we initiated the conversion of WGN America to NewsNation, leveraging our core competency in news and profitable foundation to build a network focused on providing unbiased, fact-based news. We believe there is significant growth potential for NewsNation as news networks are among the most watched and profitable cable networks.

Develop New Revenue Streams. We seek to generate new revenue streams leveraging the platform and assets of our company. Given our extensive station portfolio and geographic coverage, we are in the process of converting the technology used by our stations to a new standard, ATSC 3.0, which will enable us to provide new high speed data transmission services to businesses and consumers. In February 2024, we achieved our goal of reaching 50% of U.S. television households with ATSC 3.0. We anticipate that this conversion will enable us to develop a new business and generate additional revenue in the future.

Acquire and Invest in New and Complementary Businesses. We selectively pursue acquisitions where we believe we can improve revenue, operating income, net income, EBITDA and cash flow through active management. We selectively pursue acquisitions of businesses that leverage our platform, scale and capabilities and are complementary to our vision of providing local news, entertainment, and sports content through broadcast and digital platforms. In addition, we will continue to pursue television station acquisitions in markets where permitted by the current regulatory framework.

Stations

As of January 2024, we owned, operated, programmed or provided sales and other services to 201 full power television stations in 117 markets in 40 states and the District of Columbia, reaching approximately 39% of all U.S. television households (reflecting our owned stations only and after applying the Federal Communications Commission’s (“FCC”) ultra-high-frequency (“UHF”) discount) and approximately 70% of all U.S. television households reflecting ours and our partners’ stations and excluding the FCC UHF discount. The stations are affiliates of CBS, FOX, NBC, ABC, The CW, MyNetworkTV (“MNTV”) and other broadcast television networks and provide television programming to consumers in our markets, including network programing, content that the stations produce, including local news, and syndicated programs that the stations acquire. In 2023, we acquired KUSI-TV, a full-power independent station in San Diego, CA, WSNN-LD, a low power independent station in Tampa, FL, which is now affiliated with MNTV; and in 2024 we entered into a time brokerage agreement with KAZT, a full power independent station in Phoenix, AZ, which is now affiliated with The CW. These stations are included in the table below and the full-power stations and included in our station count. We also own and operate one AM radio station in Chicago, IL.

Of the 201 full power television stations, 37 are 100% independently owned by VIEs. We consolidate 35 of these VIEs (the “consolidated VIEs”) in our financial statements. In compliance with FCC regulations for all the parties, all VIEs maintain complete responsibility for and control over programming, finances, personnel and operations of their stations. For the consolidated VIEs, we are deemed under U.S. GAAP to have controlling financial interests in these entities because of Nexstar’s (i) local service agreements with the consolidated VIEs’ stations, (ii) guarantee (excluding The CW) of the obligations incurred under the senior secured credit facility of Mission Broadcasting, Inc. (“Mission”), a consolidated VIE, (iii) power over significant activities affecting the consolidated VIEs’ economic performance, including budgeting for advertising revenue, certain advertising sales and, in some cases, hiring and firing of sales force personnel and (iv) renewable, exercisable and assignable purchase options granted by each consolidated VIE which permit Nexstar to acquire the assets and assume the liabilities of all of the consolidated VIEs’ stations at any time, subject to FCC consent. For additional information on VIEs, see Note 2 to our Consolidated Financial Statements in Part IV, Item 15(a) of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

The following table sets forth general information about the television stations (full power, low power and multicast channels) we own, operate, program or provide sales and other services to as of January 2024.

(1)

Market rank refers to ranking the size of the DMA in which the station is located in relation to other DMAs. Source:2023-2024 Nielsen Local Television Market Universe Estimates, as published by The Nielsen Company.

(2)

O&O refers to stations that we own and operate. LSA, or local service agreement, is the general term we use to refer to a contract under which we provide services utilizing our employees to a station owned and operated by an independent third-party. Local service agreements include TBAs, SSAs, JSAs, LMAs and outsourcing agreements. For further information regarding the LSAs to which we are a party, see Note 2 to our Consolidated Financial Statements in Part IV, Item 15(a) of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

(3)

Affiliation denoted “The CW” reflects affiliation with The CW or The CW Plus.

(4)

Antenna TV and Rewind TV are digital multicast networks owned and operated by Nexstar. The other affiliations for our digital multicast channels are owned by independent third parties.

(5)

These stations and related multicast channels are owned by Mission.

(6)

WPHL, KRON, WTTA, KAUT and KSVI-D2 became affiliates of the CW Network on September 1, 2023.

(7)

Although WDVM is located within the Washington, D.C. DMA, its signal does not reach the entire Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. WDVM serves the Hagerstown, MD sub-market within the DMA. WDVM is the only commercial station licensed in the city of Hagerstown.

(8)

In January 2024, Nexstar entered into a time brokerage agreement with KAZT-TV. KAZT became an affiliate of the CW Network on February 1, 2024.

(9)

These stations are operating under channel sharing arrangements with another Company station in the same market.

(10)

Nexstar acquired WSNN-LD on July 20, 2023.

(11)

Nexstar acquired KUSI-TV from McKinnon Broadcasting on August 31, 2023.

(12)

KNVA is owned by 54 Broadcasting, a subsidiary of Vaughan Media LLC (“Vaughan”).

(13)

KREZ and KBIM operate as satellite stations of KRQE.

(14)

These stations and related multicast channels are owned by Vaughan.

(15)

KHAW and KAII operate as satellite stations of KHON. KGMD and KGMV are satellites of KHII.

(16)

KSNC, KSNG and KSNK operate as satellite stations of KSNW.

(17)

These stations and related multicast channels are owned by White Knight Broadcasting (“White Knight”).

(18)

KDLO and KPLO operate as satellite stations of KELO.

(19)

WYZZ is owned by Cunningham Broadcasting Corporation.

(20)

WEUX operates as a satellite station of WLAX.

(21)

KXMB and KXMD operate as satellite stations of KXMC.

(22)

KREY operates as a satellite station of KREX.

(23)

Application for renewal of license was submitted timely to the FCC. Under the FCC’s rules, the license expiration date is automatically extended pending FCC review of and action on the renewal application.

Network Affiliations

All, except three, of the full power television stations that we own and operate, program or provide sales and other services to are currently affiliated with a network pursuant to an affiliation agreement. The agreements with CBS, FOX, NBC, ABC, and The CW are the most significant to our operations. The current terms of these agreements expire as discussed below:

(1)

This affiliation agreement is owned by a station to which we provide sales and other services. We do not consolidate this station in our financial statements due to lack of a deemed controlling financial interest under U.S. GAAP.

Each affiliation agreement provides the affiliated station with the right to broadcast all programs transmitted by the network with which it is affiliated. In exchange, the network receives affiliation fees from us and has the right to sell a substantial majority of the advertising time during these broadcasts. We expect the network affiliation agreements listed above to be renewed upon expiration.

Networks

We own, operate or have an ownership interest in the following:

(1)

Source: Nielsen, December 2023

(2)

Source: Internal estimates

The CW. The CW is one of America’s major broadcast networks and reaches 100% of US television households. The CW delivers 15 hours of primetime entertainment programming and three hours of children’s programming per week in addition to over 300 hours of sports per year as the broadcast home to LIV Golf, ACC football and basketball games, Inside the NFL, WWE NXT beginning in 2024 and NASCAR Xfinity Series beginning in 2025. For its smaller market affiliates, CWPlus supplements The CW programming with additional syndicated content to provide 24 hours of programming, seven days per week. The fully ad-supported CW App, with more than 100 million downloads to date, is available for free to consumers on all major platforms and is home to the latest episodes and seasons of The CW’s primetime programming, live streaming of LIV Golf tournaments and a library of entertaining film and television content for on-demand viewing.

NewsNation. NewsNation is a national cable news network which primarily delivers national news programming supplemented by quality television series. NewsNation is the fastest-growing national cable news network in primetime reaching 69 million television households across the United States. Validated by independent watchdog groups, NewsNation is America’s source for engaging and unbiased news, which reflects the full range of perspectives across the country. The network draws on the local and national expertise of Nexstar’s 6,000 journalists in 110 newsrooms across the country. NewsNation is available on every major cable and satellite provider, streaming platforms including YouTubeTV, Hulu, DirecTV Stream, FuboTV and Sling, online at www.newsnationnow.com, and on the NewsNationNow app available on Android and iOS.

Antenna TV and REWIND TV. Antenna TV and REWIND TV are multicast networks reaching 100% and over 50% of U.S. television households. The networks primarily air sitcom hits from the 1950s through the 1990s.

TV Food Network. We also hold a 31.3% interest in TV Food Network, which annually distributes significant cash flow to us. TV Food Network operates two 24-hour television networks, Food Network and Cooking Channel, offering quality television, video, internet and mobile entertainment and information focusing on food and entertaining. During 2023, we received cash distributions from TV Food Network totaling $270 million. Our partner in TV Food Network is Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc., which owns a 68.7% interest in TV Food Network and operates the networks on behalf of the partnership.

Digital Assets

Our digital businesses include video and display advertising platforms that are delivered locally or nationally through our own and various third-party websites, mobile and over-the-top (“OTT”) applications, other digital media solutions to media publishers and advertisers and a consumer product reviews platform. Our digital assets include 140 local websites, 278 mobile applications, 25 connected television applications, six free-ad supported television (“FAST”) channels representing content from our local television stations, The CW, NewsNation, The Hill, and BestReviews, and a suite of advertising solutions.

The Hill. The Hill is the nation’s leading digital-first political news brand and the definitive source for non-partisan political news and information. Inside the Beltway it’s known as an essential, agenda-setting read for lawmakers and influencers. Beyond the Capitol, millions of Americans turn to The Hill to decode how events in Washington will impact their communities and lives.

BestReviews. BestReviews is a leading consumer product recommendations company which simplifies the way consumers buy products and services across thousands of categories by independently researching, analyzing, and testing products and recommending the best picks. BestReviews monetizes its content through a revenue share model with its retail partners against all sales generated by BestReviews.

Operating Model

Our primary sources of revenue include contractual distribution revenue from retransmission consent and carriage agreements with MVPDs, such as cable and satellite providers, and OVDs, companies that provide video content through internet streaming either directly or via our network affiliation partners, as well as affiliation fees from local affiliates of The CW; the sale of commercial air time by the stations to local advertisers; the sale of commercial airtime by the stations and by our broadcast and cable networks to national advertisers; the sale of advertising on the stations’ websites, on our other owned or third party websites, and through mobile and OTT applications and other digital advertising solutions.

Our primary operating expenses include programming, newsgathering, production and promotion, employee salaries and benefits, sales commissions, digital cost of goods sold and content creation costs, and other administrative and corporate expenses. A large percentage of the costs involved in our operations is relatively fixed.

We seek to grow our revenue, net income, EBITDA and cash flow by continuing to provide high quality programming that attracts and engages audiences as our reach and consumer engagement are important to our distribution partners and advertisers. We use our industry-leading scale to assist us in securing distribution revenue streams, to provide advertisers with solutions across geographies and media types to engage both local and national audiences at scale and to leverage costs against a broader platform. In addition, we plan to continue to acquire or invest in businesses that can benefit from our scale, asset mix and record of management and cost discipline.

Distribution

We receive compensation from cable, satellite and other MVPDs and OVDs in return for our consent to the retransmission of the signals of our television stations and the carriage of NewsNation. Distribution revenues primarily represent payments from the MVPDs and OVDs and are typically based on the number of subscribers they have. Our successful negotiations related to these distribution agreements produce meaningful recurring revenue streams. We also generate distribution revenues from programmers who lease the use of our spectrum in selected local markets to air their content on our multicast streams.

Advertising

Our advertising revenue is primarily derived from the sale of local and national advertising on our stations, networks, websites, apps and other digital platforms or via third party media.

Advertising revenue is positively affected by a strong economy. Conversely, declines in advertising budgets of advertisers, particularly in recessionary periods, adversely affect the broadcast industry and, as a result, may contribute to a decrease in our advertising revenue. In even-numbered years we generate substantial advertising revenue from the political advertising we sell to candidates, political action committees and political parties. Advertising revenue is also positively affected by certain events such as the Olympic Games or the Super Bowl. Advertising revenue is generally highest in the second and fourth quarters of each year, due in part to increases in consumer advertising in the spring and retail advertising in the period leading up to, and including, the holiday season.

Local advertising is sold by each station’s local sales staff who call upon advertising agencies and local businesses. Compared to revenue from national advertising accounts, revenue from local advertising is generally more stable and predictable. In 2023, national and political advertising was sold through third party national sales representative firms which call upon advertising agencies. Beginning in January 2024, our national advertising is sold through our national sales division. We continue to sell our political advertising inventory through third party national sales representative firms. Digital advertising that is not sold through our local and national sales teams is typically sold via programmatic exchanges.

Competition

Competition in the television industry takes place on several levels: competition for audience, competition for programming and competition for advertising.

Audience. We compete for audience based on program popularity. The popularity of our programming has an effect on the rates we can secure from our distributors and a direct effect on the advertising rates we can charge our advertisers. We compete against other broadcast television programming, cable and satellite television programming as well as the direct-to-consumer programming provided via a variety of streaming services, including some of the broadcast television networks with which our stations are affiliated. Other sources of competition for audience include the internet, gaming devices, home entertainment systems and video-on-demand. The CW, our broadcast television network, competes with other broadcast networks and other video programming for viewers and NewsNation, our growing national cable news network, competes with other established national news networks such as CNN, FOX News and MSNBC for viewers.

Programming. Our local television stations compete for syndicated programming from national program distributors or syndicators and compete to secure broadcast rights for regional and local sporting events. We compete against in-market broadcast station operators, cable networks and streaming services for exclusive access to this programming in our markets. In a different way, our local stations also compete with other stations in their markets to provide exclusive news stories and unique features such as investigative reporting and coverage of community events to their local audience. The CW competes against other broadcast television and cable networks as well as other video providers, such as direct-to-consumer streaming platforms for television content. NewsNation competes against other cable news networks for talent and stories.

Advertising. Our stations compete for advertising revenue with other television stations in their respective markets and other advertising media such as online media (e.g., Google, Meta, Tiktok, Snapchat, etc.), OVDs, MVPDs, radio stations, newspapers, outdoor advertising, and direct mail, among others. Competition for advertising dollars in the broadcasting industry occurs primarily within individual markets. Generally, a television broadcast station in a particular market does not compete with stations in other market areas. The CW also competes for advertising revenue with other broadcast networks and other distribution technologies. NewsNation also competes for advertising revenue with other advertising media and with other established national networks such as CNN, FOX News and MSNBC.

Federal Regulation

Television broadcasting is subject to the jurisdiction of the Federal Communications Commission (the “FCC”) under the Communications Act of 1934, as amended (the “Communications Act”). The following is a brief discussion of certain provisions of the Communications Act and the FCC’s regulations and policies that affect our operations. These rules are subject to change, which may affect our operations.

FCC Licenses, Renewals and Transfers

License Grant and Renewal. The Communications Act requires broadcast stations to operate under licenses issued by the FCC. Television broadcast licenses are granted for a maximum term of eight years and may be renewed upon application to the FCC. The FCC grants an application for license renewal if the station served the public interest, the licensee did not commit any serious violations of the Communications Act or the FCC’s rules and the licensee committed no other violations which, taken together, would constitute a pattern of abuse. A majority of renewal applications are routinely granted under this standard. We consistently have received renewals and approvals in the past and are permitted to continue operations when renewal is delayed; however, there are no assurances that this will be the case in the future.

Station Transfer. The Communications Act prohibits the assignment or the transfer of control of a broadcast station’s FCC license without prior FCC approval.

Foreign Ownership Restrictions

The Communications Act limits the extent of non-U.S. ownership of companies that own U.S. broadcast stations, generally prohibiting more than 20% non-U.S. ownership (by vote and by equity) in a U.S. broadcast licensee or more than 25% indirect foreign ownership or control of such licensee through a parent company. The FCC will entertain and may authorize, on a case-by-case basis, proposals to exceed the 25% indirect foreign ownership limit in broadcast licensees.

Multiple Ownership Rules

The FCC multiple ownership rules restrict the number of television stations in which a single person or entity may have an “attributable interest.”

Ownership Attribution. For purposes of determining compliance with the multiple ownership rules, the FCC rules consider the “attributable interests” in a broadcast station licensee held by an individual or entity. The following are considered “attributable interests”: (i) for corporations, officership, directorship and voting stock interests of 5% or more (20% or more in the case of certain passive investors), (ii) for partnerships and limited liability companies, any limited partnership interest or limited liability company interest, unless properly “insulated” from involvement in the partnership’s media activities, and any general partnership interest, and (iii) more than 33% of a licensee’s total assets (defined as total debt plus total equity), if the holder of such interest also provides over 15% of the station’s total weekly broadcast programming or has an attributable interest in another media entity in the same market which is subject to the FCC’s ownership rules. If a shareholder of Nexstar holds a voting stock interest of 5% or more (20% or more in the case of certain passive investors), we must report that shareholder, its parent entities, and attributable individuals and entities of both, as attributable interest holders in Nexstar.

Local Television Multiple Ownership (Duopoly) Rule. Under the local television multiple ownership, or “duopoly,” rule, a single entity is allowed to own or have attributable interests in two television stations in a DMA if (i) the two stations do not have overlapping service areas, or (ii) at least one of the two stations is not ranked among the top four stations in the DMA in terms of audience share (subject to certain exceptions based on a case-by-case determination). The duopoly rule also allows the FCC to consider waivers to permit the ownership of a second station, where otherwise prohibited, where the second station has failed or is failing or unbuilt.

In certain markets, the Company owns and operates both full-power and low-power television (“LPTV”) broadcast stations. The FCC’s rules and policies regarding ownership of television stations in the same market and nationally generally apply only to full-power television stations. In 2023, the FCC extended the duopoly rule to prohibit, in certain circumstances, the acquisition of a network affiliation that would establish a “top four” combination involving a network-affiliated LPTV station or digital multicast stream.

National Television Multiple Ownership Rule. The FCC’s rules limit the percentage of U.S. television households which a party may reach through its attributable interests in television stations to 39%. When calculating a party’s nationwide aggregate audience coverage, the ownership of a UHF station is counted as 50% of a market’s percentage of total national audience. In December 2017, the FCC initiated a proceeding to broadly reexamine its national television ownership rule and the proceeding remains open.

Local Service Agreements. The FCC applies the local television ownership limits to a non-owned station when the owner of a station in the same market provides more than 15% of the second station’s weekly broadcast programming. However, local marketing agreements entered into prior to November 5, 1996 (“grandfathered LMAs”) are exempt from this attribution rule until the FCC determines otherwise. This “grandfathering” is subject to possible extension or termination in a future FCC review. Nexstar is currently a party to certain grandfathered LMAs.

Under current FCC rules, joint sales agreement (“JSAs”) and shared services agreements (“SSAs”) between independently owned television stations that do not exceed the programming threshold noted above are non-attributable but must be publicly disclosed, and the FCC may in the future consider regulations with respect to such agreements. Nexstar is currently a party to certain JSA and SSA agreements whereby it provides services to independently owned stations.

Quadrennial Review of Media Ownership Rules. The FCC is required to review its media ownership rules every four years and to eliminate those rules it finds are no longer “necessary in the public interest as a result of competition.” In December 2023, the FCC issued an order concluding its 2018 quadrennial review. The order retained the local television ownership rule without deregulatory changes while extending the rule to prohibit, in certain circumstances, the acquisition of a network affiliation that would establish a “top four” combination involving a network affiliated LPTV station or digital multicast stream. The FCC’s 2018 quadrennial review order is subject to appeal, and in addition, the 2022 quadrennial review is currently pending. Thus, the media ownership rules may be subject to change in response to current or future quadrennial reviews or other proceedings.

Distribution by Multichannel Video Programming Distributors (“MVPDs”) and Online Video Distributors (“OVDs”)

MVPD Carriage of Local Television Signals. Broadcasters may obtain carriage of their television stations’ signals on cable, satellite and other MVPDs through either mandatory carriage or through “retransmission consent.” Every three years all stations must formally elect either mandatory carriage (“must-carry” for cable distributors and “carry one-carry all” for satellite television providers) or retransmission consent. The next election must be made by October 1, 2026 and will be effective January 1, 2027. Mandatory carriage elections require that the MVPD carry one station programming stream and related data in the station’s local market, subject to limited exceptions. MVPDs do not pay a fee to stations that elect mandatory carriage. We and our partners have elected “retransmission consent” for all of our stations.

A broadcaster, like Nexstar, that elects retransmission consent waives its mandatory carriage rights, and the broadcaster and the MVPD must negotiate terms for carriage of the station’s signal. If a broadcaster elects to negotiate retransmission terms, it is possible that the broadcaster and the MVPD will not reach agreement and that the MVPD will not carry the station’s signal. Pursuant to the FCC rules and federal statutory law all broadcasters and MVPDs must conduct retransmission consent negotiations in “good faith,” and a broadcaster may not undertake such negotiations for third parties including VIEs in markets where that broadcaster also owns a television station. MVPDs and broadcasters may file FCC complaints against each other for violations of the good faith negotiation rules, and such complaints have been filed against Nexstar in the past. We cannot predict the impact that any such complaints may have on our operations.

MVPDs have actively sought to change the regulations under which retransmission consent is negotiated before both the U.S. Congress and the FCC in order to increase their bargaining leverage with television stations, and there are still-open FCC proceedings to review these regulations.

Certain OVDs stream broadcast programming over the internet. In December 2014, the FCC issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking proposing to interpret the term “MVPD” to encompass OVDs that make available for purchase multiple streams of video programming distributed at a prescheduled time and seeking comment on the effects of applying MVPD rules to such OVDs. The proceeding remains open.

Broadcast Transmission Standard (ATSC 3.0)

In November 2017, the FCC adopted rules to permit television broadcasters to voluntarily broadcast using a new broadcast television transmission standard developed by the Advanced Television Systems Committee, Inc., also referred to as “ATSC 3.0” or “NEXTGEN TV.” The ATSC 3.0 standard provides for a more efficient use of spectrum, which could enable us to provide additional services to consumers and businesses, including additional content, interactive television, signal encryption and data transmission services. Nexstar and its partners have adopted the ATSC 3.0 technology in their stations covering over 50% of U.S. television households.

Because ATSC 3.0 is not compatible with existing television equipment, the FCC requires the stations which have adopted the ATSC 3.0 technology to continue broadcasting a substantially similar signal in the existing standard until the FCC phases out the requirement. In June 2023, the FCC issued a Third Report and Order and Fourth Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that extends the sunset for certain transition requirements from July 2023 to July 2027. In addition, in June 2020, the FCC adopted a Declaratory Ruling and Notice of Proposed Rulemaking declaring that local and national ownership restrictions do not apply to non-video services provided on a broadcaster’s ATSC 3.0 spectrum.

Other FCC Broadcast Regulations and Enforcement

The FCC continues to strictly enforce its regulations concerning indecency, sponsorship identification, political advertising, good faith retransmission consent negotiation, unauthorized assignments and transfers of control, multiple ownership, children’s television, environmental concerns, emergency alerting and information, equal employment opportunity, technical operating matters, antenna tower maintenance, and other matters. The FCC may impose substantial forfeitures or, in extreme cases, revoke licenses if it determines that its rules have been violated.

Human Capital Management

Values. Our key human capital management objectives are to attract, develop, and retain top industry talent that reflects the diversity of the communities in which we operate and provide services. We encourage every individual’s contribution and personal growth and foster work environments that provide personal pride through job satisfaction and a balanced life. We embrace the communities in which we operate and promote open communications, innovation and creativity.

Engagement and Opportunities. With markets ranging from small to large to national, we offer a broad range of opportunities for every experience level, including for those who are just starting their broadcasting career or are ready to move to a larger market or onto the national stage. Our market diversity allows us to give our employees room to grow and progress in their careers. Our management team supports a culture of developing future leaders from our existing workforce, enabling us to promote from within for many leadership positions. As of December 31, 2023, our voluntary retention rate for employees was approximately 82%.

Compensation and Benefits. We offer our employees a broad range of company-paid benefits and we believe our compensation package and benefits are competitive with others in our industry. Our employee wages are competitive and consistent with employee positions, experience, knowledge and location. Annual wage increases and incentive payments are based on merit and are communicated to employees as a part of the annual review process.

Diversity and Inclusion. We value diversity at all levels and continue to focus on extending our diversity and inclusion initiatives across our entire workforce. We believe a diverse workforce fosters innovation and cultivates an environment of unique perspectives. We encourage a culture of diversity and inclusion so our employees feel respected and do not feel discriminated against. To help us achieve our diversity goals, our Diversity and Inclusion Council, a ten-member group of rotating members, regularly meets and advises senior management on ideas and initiatives to help diverse and inclusive workplace, where diverse talent can flourish and build a career. In addition, we have five Employee Resource Groups in the categories of Latinx, Women, African American, Veterans and LGBTQ+ designed to bring together employees who share similar cultures, backgrounds, and/or interests, as well as those employees who wish to provide support to that group. In order to ensure accountability in making progress in our diversity goals, a portion of our managers’ bonuses are tied to diversity metrics in their markets.

As of December 31, 2023, approximately 41% and 30% of our employees and our management (Vice Presidents and above), respectively, were women. In the U.S., approximately 26% and 11% of our employees and our management, respectively, were racially/ethnically diverse. This compares to approximately 40% of the U.S. population which is racially/ethnically diverse (source: 2020 United States Census Bureau population).

Training and Mentorship. We are committed to developing the talents of our employees and provide our employees workplace training. Our catalog of courses includes harassment prevention, diversity/equity/inclusion, ethics, managing bias, supervisor/manager skills, and health-related safety. In addition, we have a mentorship program that matches mentors and mentees across the company and provides the pairs with a 12-topic curriculum covering skills such as communications, networking, work/life balance, and goal setting. Selected Nexstar employees also participate in annual training to ensure understanding of antitrust laws and how they apply to Nexstar and media sales training program provided by The Center for Sales Strategy, a third-party vendor.

Safety and Health. We are committed to providing a safe and healthy workplace for our employees. All employees are required to comply with our safety rules and are expected to actively contribute to making our company a safer place to work. Employees must immediately report accidents, injuries, and unsafe equipment, practices or conditions to a supervisor or other designated person. Threats or acts of violence or physical intimidation are prohibited and subject to disciplinary action up to and including termination of employment.

Employees. As of December 31, 2023, we had a total of 13,294 employees, comprised of 11,877 full-time and 1,417 part-time employees. As of December 31, 2023, 1,944 of our employees were covered by collective bargaining agreements. We believe that our employee relations are satisfactory, and we have not experienced any work stoppages at any of our facilities. However, we cannot assure you that our collective bargaining agreements will be renewed in the future, or that we will not experience a prolonged labor dispute, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition or results of operations.

Community Outreach. We pride ourselves on the opportunities we provide for our employees to give back to their communities. At the local level, our stations are actively involved in over 1,775 community outreach initiatives in 2023. Nexstar and its partner stations work with local community groups to increase awareness, raise money and otherwise assist these local groups with their missions. Stations run promotions and air content related to the initiative and station employees participate in local events. On a companywide basis, Nexstar engages in a variety of initiatives as well, including, among others, partnering with Feeding America, the nation’s largest domestic hunger relief organization by providing air-time and financial support from 2021 – 2023; Project Roadblock, a national multiplatform program aimed at preventing drunk driving, by donating airtime and news coverage to the issue; and Remarkable Women, Nexstar’s own initiative to celebrate local women to inspire, lead and pave the way for other women to succeed, by airing content and contributing to the winners’ charitable organizations of her choice. In addition, since our 20th anniversary in June 2016 (with the exception of 2020), we organized an annual Founder’s Day of Caring, an employee-driven effort focused on local non-profits and charities. Across the country our employees take the day to contribute thousands of hours of community services. In 2023, our Founder’s Day initiatives provided nearly 17,500 hours of service in one day to the communities served by Nexstar TV stations.

Legal Proceedings

From time to time, we are involved in litigation that arises from the ordinary operations of business, such as contractual or employment disputes or other general actions. In the event of an adverse outcome of these proceedings, we believe the resulting liabilities would not have a material adverse effect on our financial condition or results of operations. See Note 16 to our Consolidated Financial Statements included in Part IV, Item 15(a) of this Annual Report on Form 10-K, which is incorporated herein by reference.

Available Information

We file annual, quarterly and current reports, proxy statements and other information with the SEC. The SEC maintains a website that contains reports, proxy and information statements and other information regarding issuers, including us, that file electronically with the SEC. The address for the SEC’s website is http://www.sec.gov. Due to the availability of our filings on the SEC website, we do not currently make available our filings on our internet website. Upon request, we will provide free copies of our annual reports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q and any other filings with the SEC. Requests can be sent to Nexstar Media Group, Inc., Attn: Investor Relations, 545 E. John Carpenter Freeway, Suite 700, Irving, TX 75062. Additional information about us, our stations and the stations we program or provide services to can be found on our website athttp://www.nexstar.tv. We do not incorporate the information contained on or accessible through our corporate website into this Annual Report on Form 10-K.