Nexstar Revenue Jumps 62% as TEGNA Deal Reshapes Balance Sheet
Nexstar Media Group posted record net revenue of $1.99 billion in the second quarter, up 62.2% from a year earlier, as its TEGNA acquisition and a heavy political-advertising slate offset margin pressure from deal costs and higher debt.
Nexstar Media Group (NXST) reported record net revenue of $1.99 billion for the second quarter, up 62.2% from $1.229 billion a year earlier, as the television broadcaster absorbed a full quarter of its TEGNA acquisition into results. The increase followed a smaller, partial-quarter boost in the first quarter, when net revenue rose 13.1% year over year to $1.396 billion with only 12 days of TEGNA contribution.
The deal, which closed March 19, 2026, remains under legal scrutiny. A preliminary injunction issued April 17, 2026 requires Nexstar and TEGNA to be held separate, and a federal appeals court on July 9, 2026 rejected challenges to the transaction, leaving a trial date set for July 6, 2027. The hold-separate order has already forced an accounting change: Nexstar disclosed that its credit-agreement leverage calculations now exclude TEGNA synergies, since the injunction pushes potential synergy realization past a September 19, 2027 outside date. That adjustment put the company's pro forma first-lien net leverage ratio at 3.21 times and total net leverage at 4.22 times.
Advertising revenue climbed 81.5% to $862 million from $475 million, accelerating from 19.1% growth in the first quarter, as $331 million of incremental TEGNA revenue combined with $147 million of political advertising tied to the 2026 election cycle and FIFA World Cup coverage on FOX affiliates. Distribution revenue rose 52.3% to $1.116 billion from $733 million, up from 9.8% growth in the prior quarter, with $362 million of the gain coming from TEGNA and the remainder from vMVPD subscriber growth and new CW affiliations, partly offset by traditional pay-TV subscriber losses.
Profitability told a more mixed story. Net income margin fell to 5.7% from 7.4% a year earlier, reversing the expansion Nexstar posted in the first quarter, when margin widened to 11.5% from 7.9%. The decline reflected $53 million of one-time TEGNA transaction expenses, up from $10 million a year earlier, including a newly disclosed $18 million of accelerated stock-based compensation tied to TEGNA restructuring. Adjusted EBITDA margin was roughly flat at 31.8% versus 31.7% a year earlier, a marked deceleration from the 2.8-percentage-point gain Nexstar reported in the first quarter, as TEGNA's lower-margin revenue mix diluted consolidated profitability.
Interest expense nearly doubled to $190 million from $97 million, tracking the debt load Nexstar took on to fund the $3.657 billion acquisition. Total debt rose to $11.744 billion at June 30 from $6.333 billion at year-end 2025, including $3.798 million of newly issued secured notes and a jump in secured credit facilities to $5.185 billion from $3.622 billion. Debt repayment accelerated to $409 million in the quarter, compared with $182 million disclosed cumulatively through April at the first-quarter mark.
Cash generation lagged the revenue expansion. Operating cash flow grew 20.6% to $298 million from $247 million, and the year-to-date figure of $587 million was nearly unchanged from $584 million a year earlier despite the much larger post-acquisition revenue base. Adjusted free cash flow fared better, more than doubling to $238 million from $101 million.
Nexstar held its dividend roughly steady at $57 million, up slightly from $56 million in the first quarter, but suspended share repurchases for a second straight quarter after buying back $50 million of stock in the second quarter of 2025 and $125 million in the first half of that year. The shift signals a prioritization of debt paydown over buybacks as the company works through its post-TEGNA leverage.