A federal judge in Sacramento, California, has temporarily blocked a $6.2 billion merger between US local television broadcasters Nexstar Media Group and Tegna until an antitrust lawsuit challenging the deal is resolved. Chief Judge Troy L. Nunley ruled that eight Democratic state attorneys general and satellite provider DirecTV were likely to succeed in their bid to halt the merger, which would create a single company owning 265 television stations across 44 US states. The judge found that the combined entity would gain the power to raise retransmission fees charged to pay-TV distributors, driving up consumer costs, while also consolidating local news operations and reducing viewer choice — concluding that blocking the deal was "in the public interest."