• by Wayne Friedman , January 17, 2023

The largest owner of U.S. TV stations, Nexstar Media Group, will no longer allow its local TV stations' newscasts to be streamed live for free as they air.

Instead, those local newscasts will be offered on a delayed basis on TV stations' websites two hours after their original live airings. The move was made “to fulfill our obligations to our cable, satellite and telecom partners,” said Nexstar in a statement.

Nexstar reaps major retransmission revenue with pay TV providers -- as do nearly all local TV stations -- in exchange for cable, satellite, telco and virtual services carrying TV stations on their platforms that consumers pay for.

Local TV news content is a major piece of local TV stations viewing and revenue-generating content. 

Pay TV providers don’t want TV stations to offer their local TV news programming for free and thus give subscribers more reasons to possibly cut back or drop pay TV services, according to analysts. Industry-wide "cord-cutting" remains a major hindrance to the pay TV business.

Although Nexstar was offering its local TV stations' live TV telecasts in real-time for free on streaming services, it could benefit from extra revenue from advertisers.

This comes from extra carriage via online TV-video distributors where local and regional advertisers -- who buy media time on Nexstar stations -- gain from extra viewer reach.

Nexstar adds: “We also continue to make highlights of our newscasts available through video clips and other coverage after the live broadcast. Breaking news and important weather updates will continue to be offered on the station's websites as they occur, and on our mobile apps and social media platforms.”