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In an exclusive report by Reuters, Nexstar Media Group is buying Tribune Media Co. for more than 4-billion dollars. The two companies are major players in the local television news game. Each own a considerable share of the market. But, with this potential sale, Nexstar Media Group will become the single largest local TV conglomerate in the nation.

The sale hasn’t officially been announced yet. Sources tell Reuters the sale could be announced as early as Monday morning (December 3, 2018).

This merger comes on the tail of botched sale to Sinclair Broadcast Group (SBG). SBG, the current largest local TV station operation in the country with 190 stations, tried to buy Tribune Media this past summer. They offered 3.9 billion to acquire the company, but the sale was blocked by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). As part of the deal to buy Tribune, Sinclair was to sell off some of it’s stations so they couldn’t monopolize the local TV industry. The FCC had major concerns with Sinclairs sincerity to do so, and sent their concerns to a judge. When that happened, Tribune pulled out saying Sinclair went back on their end of the deal and consequently sued SBG for 1 billion dollars.

If the sale between Nexstar and Tribune goes through, Nexstar will own 213 local television stations, which means they will become the largest local TV news operator in the country.

This potential sale isn’t public yet, and is only speculation at the moment. But it’s fair to assume that the FCC will have certain requirements for the deal to go through. If the FCC was forcing Sinclair to sell some stations for that sale, is makes sense that they would force Nexstar to sell some stations for this deal.

But for now, all of that is up in the air. We will update this article as more information is released.