Nexstar Media Group Inc at Wells Fargo TMT Summit Transcript

The following is excerpted from the question-and-answer section of the transcript.

Question: Steven Cahall - Wells Fargo Securities LLC - Analyst : Perry, Nexstar has never been shy about making bold moves in M&A. You did Media General, you did Tribune, CW, and I think TEGNA probably by enterprise value is the biggest move you've made and maybe even the boldest because the FCC is in the process of potentially making changes. I think you said that you're meeting them at the regulatory moment, something that Chairman Carr has talked about all year long. So where are we, in your view, in terms of that process that you're meeting? And what can we expect to happen next as we track the merger towards the deregulation?

Question: Steven Cahall - Wells Fargo Securities LLC - Analyst : And the FCC, I think, we've been able to track, especially with Chairman Carr's public appearances, going back almost a year now. The DoJ, to me, has always been an agency that we have a lot less insight into in terms of how they think about things and particularly how they look at station overlaps. So knowing the FCC duopoly rule has been vacated, what do you think has changed at the DoJ or it could be changing in terms of how they may look at antitrust? Since I think you've said that you expect divestitures to be pretty minimal for the transaction. REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. NOVEMBER 18, 2025 / 8:45PM, NXST.OQ - Nexstar Media Group Inc at Wells Fargo TMT Summit

Question: Steven Cahall - Wells Fargo Securities LLC - Analyst : I mean, it's interesting that while I think the FCC process gets the most attention, a change to the DoJ could have just as big of an impact on the industry and the ability to consolidate. So because we can see what the Chairman's viewpoint is, what do you think will be the first proof point we see where the DoJ is in this regulatory moment?

Question: Steven Cahall - Wells Fargo Securities LLC - Analyst : So TEGNA will undoubtedly require a lot of integration work. I think it's something you've built some muscle memory in over the years with the acquisitions. I think you've also indicated that this isn't probably the last transaction that you intend to pursue. So how do we just think about post this transaction, pro forma for what the company will look like? What do you start to prioritize from there? Is it national networks to complement the CW, news like NewsNation, larger DMAs? Just anything that would be at the top of your agenda.

Question: Steven Cahall - Wells Fargo Securities LLC - Analyst : And then just lastly on the M&A topic. So you've talked to the $300 million in EBITDA synergies. They seem pretty conservative, at least based on some other transactions that some peers have looked at. But I think Tribune is probably the best analog of how I would think about where these synergies come from. So maybe timing and components, any additional detail you can add?

Question: Steven Cahall - Wells Fargo Securities LLC - Analyst : And I would think that there is then still a long tail of asset value or efficiency gain that you capture. I think there's parts of the CW that you're still realizing benefits from. So if we think about $300 million of year one, two synergies, is there additional upside that happens over time?

Question: Steven Cahall - Wells Fargo Securities LLC - Analyst : I do not have the lawn mowing efficiencies in my --

Question: Steven Cahall - Wells Fargo Securities LLC - Analyst : A more strategic question. This is something I've thought about a lot. I mean if someone who's followed local broadcast for quite a number of years, it's just -- I think often, media investors really look at the TV world of linear and streaming at the household level, that's not true. A lot of people are very much in both, in broadcast and streaming, linear and streaming, however, you want to say it. But there is definitely an increasing cohort of Americans that have decided to live in a streaming-only world. And I've always thought it's interesting that broadcast, local news isn't as well represented there as it could be. I know every station has a website, has a presence, it's certainly something I visit where I live in Austin, with, I think, KXAN is a station. But as we have these aggregators and streaming, I'm thinking things like Netflix, YouTube, maybe Roku, they're looking for content all the time. And soon, you're going to reach 80% of the country with local news specific to every market. So I'm just wondering how you think about your scale matching into the streaming world and being able to deliver local news locally at scale maybe through some of these platforms over time. REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. NOVEMBER 18, 2025 / 8:45PM, NXST.OQ - Nexstar Media Group Inc at Wells Fargo TMT Summit

Question: Steven Cahall - Wells Fargo Securities LLC - Analyst : On retrans, so I think the end of this year, early next, a little more than 50% comes up for renewal. I think when we've talked in the past before, Perry, I think you've said that there's maybe one still solid cycle ahead for pricing to increase at the station level before it levels off. And I know as the dollars get bigger, the percentage increase probably slows. But just -- as you think about the outlook from here, there's a pricing component, there's a subscriber churn component. So maybe how are you feeling about the combination of factors in the next year or two?

Question: Steven Cahall - Wells Fargo Securities LLC - Analyst : Sure. A record football season doesn't hurt.

Question: Steven Cahall - Wells Fargo Securities LLC - Analyst : And maybe just as a follow-up on cable. One thing I've been curious about is I cover the cable companies as well. We've certainly seen this big improvement started with Charter. You've seen it follow with Comcast given the work that they put into their video package. It's a little tougher for us to track what happens, especially on the vMVPD side of things. I'm not sure what subscriber information, like how real time it is. But do you all get the sense that the improvement in cable is a net improvement to the ecosystem rather than like a trade from one to the other just because that would be pretty material to the churn rate.

Question: Steven Cahall - Wells Fargo Securities LLC - Analyst : And then on the reverse compensation side. So I think now pretty much all of the network content in some way, shape or form is available in streaming, whether that's Fox One or ESPN with some of the ABC content, et cetera. And some of the peers, we've started to see some lower costs in reverse comp, which I think is reflected a little bit of this change in tone, re-recognition of the industry. So how are you thinking about the opportunity ahead on the net side?

Question: Steven Cahall - Wells Fargo Securities LLC - Analyst : And pro forma for TEGNA, have you considered any of the scale benefits in the $300 million in synergy? Or just due to timing, et cetera, is that incremental to the benefit? REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. NOVEMBER 18, 2025 / 8:45PM, NXST.OQ - Nexstar Media Group Inc at Wells Fargo TMT Summit

Question: Steven Cahall - Wells Fargo Securities LLC - Analyst : Yeah. Okay.

Question: Steven Cahall - Wells Fargo Securities LLC - Analyst : On the advertising side, so I think there was a little bit of maybe misunderstanding just coming out of the fourth quarter about the differences in the local and national advertising market and what those trends are. So maybe it would be helpful, Lee Ann, you and I have talked about this, if you could just unpack the quarter a bit, both Q3 and Q4.

Question: Steven Cahall - Wells Fargo Securities LLC - Analyst : And if we think about pretty stable, my sense is things were pretty unstable around the tariff announcements in the second quarter, they improved since. But zoom back to where we started the year. Would you say the ad market on the whole has been better, worse or about as expected in 2025?

Question: Steven Cahall - Wells Fargo Securities LLC - Analyst : And then for the CW, Lee Anne, you started to talk a little bit about the programming strategy. If we look at this asset and we look out a few years' time, is there a target that either percentage of content value that's live versus sports or percentage of hours that's live in sports, just how you envision this looking like?

Question: Steven Cahall - Wells Fargo Securities LLC - Analyst : And I think for a number of years, we've focused on breakeven, but I'm sure you all are thinking well beyond just breakeven for the network. So how do you think about where the margins can get to on the CW over time?

Question: Steven Cahall - Wells Fargo Securities LLC - Analyst : And then just on the exciting issue of ATSC 3.0 and sunsetting of 1.0. I'll be honest, like from my seat and I think many of my peers, we understand the opportunity. We know it's a real asset. It has capital behind it. Finding that revenue solutions that turned it into a valuable asset is, I think, what we're all waiting for. So I'd love to hear where you think we are in EdgeBeam's development, the Spectrum's development and when we could start to see some of that more meaningful revenue that crystallizes value.

Question: Steven Cahall - Wells Fargo Securities LLC - Analyst : And do you think that's the opening of the gates?

Question: Steven Cahall - Wells Fargo Securities LLC - Analyst : Just the last question. I mean everything we talked about here is about scale. You're the largest scale player, you're going to be an even larger scale player, Advertising in the CW continues to be more virtuous, the ability of spectrum and the benefit of TEGNA within it. So when you take the long view of the sector, how many scaled players do you think that we'll see in broadcast maybe by the end of this administration or something like that time line? Is that a good thing?

Question: Steven Cahall - Wells Fargo Securities LLC - Analyst : Great. Well, thank you, all.