Nexstar Media Group Inc Q3 2025 Earnings Call Summary

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

Question: Daniel Kurnos - The Benchmark Company, LLC - Analyst : Two for me. Perry, I appreciate the update on the deal timing. It was implied yesterday that the SEC might address the cap in early '26. And I appreciate all of the color you gave us around what you guys are doing behind the scenes. So I just wanted to give you the floor to maybe talk about why you're confident that the deal will close and close on time as you proposed it? And then for Mike, just a housekeeping question on the Q3 distribution stuff. I appreciate the color. Any more granularity you could give us? And is that onetime in nature? Is there any flow-through into Q4?

Question: Benjamin Soff - Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. - Analyst : So you obviously already have your big transaction in place, but I'm curious if you have any thoughts on what the rest of the industry might look like a few years down the line in particular, are there any implications for Nexstar if the rest of the industry goes through consolidation or not? And then I have a follow-up.

Question: Benjamin Soff - Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. - Analyst : Great. And then I'm just curious to get your thoughts on the outlook for the next political cycle. And in general, how do you view the dollars and how they might flow between broadcast and CTV in the future?

Question: Steven Cahall - Wells Fargo Securities, LLC - Analyst : I have a couple of strategic questions. So first, Perry, I made the mistake once of writing that you might be nearing retirement. That's clearly not the case. So as you think out to the end of the decade, we'll be in a different administration. We'll be in some different NFL contracts. What are some of your biggest priorities sort of post TEGNA that you still have in mind for the company as you look forward? And then pro forma for TEGNA, I think Nexstar will have local news in something like 80% of the country. We've seen your network partners not be shy about going into the streaming market where there's a lot of households that just aren't on linear. How do you think about your ability to be in the CTV market at that level of scale, whether that's working with a big platform provider or doing something on your own?

Question: Craig Huber - Huber Research Partners, LLC - Analyst : Perry, my first question is you talked about $300 million of synergies with TEGNA. I would think, if anything, that's conservative. Can you talk a little bit about how you get to that number? Just repeat that, if you would. And then with all those synergies here, once this deal supposedly closes, I would imagine it's going to free up a lot of money on your end, if you wanted to enhance the news programming, for example, at TEGNA. I've always viewed TEGNA as one of the better run companies in the group, but nothing is perfect, and I think you could potentially increase maybe the number of hours on the news programming side for local, but also the quality of it even further. Maybe just touch on that, please. And to talk about what's better for the public. I mean, that would certainly be appealing, right? That's my first question.

Question: Craig Huber - Huber Research Partners, LLC - Analyst : I have one final just housekeeping question, Lee Ann. Are you guys still expecting gross and net retrans revenue this year to be flat versus a year ago for the full year?

Question: Patrick Sholl - Barrington Research Associates, Inc. - Analyst : I was wondering if you could talk a little bit more about the ad trends expectations that you laid out for the fourth quarter. I was wondering if there was like any specific like weaknesses in local markets or any category drivers of what you kind of called out?

Question: Aaron Watts - Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. - Analyst : Clearly, there's optimism that 2026 will be a strong year of political spending. Typically, with that setup, we're used to seeing pressure on core advertising growth due to the crowd out effect. That said, you'll have more sports on the air notably with NBC, broadcasting the NBA as well as other big sporting events next year. With the benefit of those incremental sports, curious if you think core advertising could be stable or even grow next year compared to '25 or at least perform better than it has in election years in the past.

Question: Aaron Watts - Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. - Analyst : Okay. And if I could ask you one follow-up around sports, Perry. There's been reports that the NFL may look to open up negotiations on its media rights as early as next year. I think there's clear benefits to that for local TV broadcasters, but also some concerns. Would be curious to hear how you're thinking about that potential and whether it is actually a good thing for you and the universe.