A federal judge has refused to dismiss antitrust claims brought by DirecTV against Nexstar Media Group, allowing the satellite television provider to continue pursuing allegations that several broadcasters coordinated retransmission fee demands in violation of U.S. competition law.
Judge P. Kevin Castel of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York ruled that DirecTV had plausibly alleged the existence of a price-fixing conspiracy involving Nexstar, Mission Broadcasting Inc. and White Knight Broadcasting, according to Bloomberg Law.
The decision marks another legal setback for Nexstar in a dispute centered on retransmission consent fees — the payments distributors such as DirecTV make to carry local broadcast stations and network programming. The case now returns to discovery and further litigation on the merits of the allegations.
DirecTV originally sued in 2023, claiming the broadcasters improperly coordinated negotiations in ways that inflated retransmission costs and limited competition in the market for television distribution rights. The company alleges that the defendants structured relationships and bargaining arrangements to strengthen their leverage over pay-TV providers and force higher fees or risk blackouts of popular programming.
The latest ruling follows a significant appellate victory for DirecTV late last year. In December 2025, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit reinstated the federal antitrust claims after a lower court had dismissed the case for lack of standing. The appellate court found that DirecTV had plausibly alleged antitrust injury through lost profits tied to programming disruptions and reduced output, allowing the litigation to proceed.
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According to the Second Circuit’s opinion, DirecTV argued that the broadcasters’ conduct effectively restricted competition in negotiations over retransmission rights and harmed distributors and consumers by increasing costs and limiting access to programming. The appeals court concluded that those alleged injuries were sufficiently direct to support antitrust standing.
Nexstar has continued to challenge the case. Reuters reported in May that the broadcaster petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to review the Second Circuit’s ruling, arguing that the appellate decision improperly expanded the scope of antitrust liability by permitting claims from parties that did not directly pay the allegedly inflated prices.
The dispute comes as retransmission fees and broadcaster market power have become increasingly important issues in the media industry. Local television station owners have gained negotiating leverage through consolidation and operational agreements, while distributors have complained that rising carriage costs contribute to higher consumer bills and recurring programming blackouts.
The litigation also unfolds amid broader antitrust scrutiny…
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