A three-year court battle between Nexstar Media Group and DirecTV over alleged antitrust activities associated with a failed retransmission consent agreement is far from over. And, lawyers representing the direct broadcast satellite (DBS) service provider are running out of patience.
Last week, DirecTV’s counsel asked the judge overseeing the case in a New York federal district court to compel the company and two shared services partners to present materials through discovery that have yet to surface.
A “Notice of Motion” was submitted to the court by Laura Harris and her team of attorneys at King & Spalding‘s New York office representing DirecTV, asking the Hon. Robert Lehrburger to compel Nexstar and both Mission Broadcasting and White Knight Broadcasting to produce a series of withheld documents.
She also wants an order from the judge awarding “reasonable” attorneys’ fees to DirecTV.
It marks the latest tit-for-tat in a legal tussle that dates to 2022 and tilted in DirecTV’s favor in mid-December 2025, when a decision was handed down by the Second Circuit to side with DirecTV in establishing the argument that Nexstar engaged in antitrust activities when it failed to reach a retransmission consent accord with the DBS provider.
This reversed and remanded a New York federal district court ruling that had granted Nexstar Media Group’s motion to dismiss DirecTV’s claims. In doing so, the Second Circuit concluded that DirecTV “plausibly alleged antitrust injury by way of reduced output” and that it could act as an “efficient enforcer” of the antitrust laws.
Because the federal district court concluded that DirecTV did not plausibly allege antitrust standing, the March 2024 opinion in favor of Nexstar failed to address its additional arguments in favor of the case’s dismissal.
With the remand of the case to the courtroom of District Judge Keven Castel, originally assigned the case in March 2023, Nexstar again attempted to gain a dismission. How so? It referenced the “failure to state a claim on DirecTV’s three Sherman Act claims and its claims under New York law for breach of contract, tortious interference with contract and
tortious interference with prospective economic advantage.”
That was denied by Castel, asserting that DirecTV’s allegations are sufficient to plausibly allege that the defendants, which include Nexstar shared services partners White Knight Broadcasting and Mission Broadcasting, agreed to act in concert to fix the retransmission fees that they demanded from DirecTV.
Mission is the owner of 29 full-power TV stations across 26 markets. All of its television stations are operated by Nexstar via shared services agreements. Mission is led by Nancie Smith. White Knight is based in Lafayette, La., and dates to 1995. It is the owner of WVLA-TV in Baton Rouge and KFXK-TV and KFXL-LP in the Tyler-Longview-Lufkin, Tex., DMA. These stations remain blocked by DirecTV to their paying subscribers.
It is in this court that a more than three-year legal tussle began, with District Judge Kevin Castel assigned the case in March 2023.
Approximately one year later, he ruled in favor of Nexstar. That didn’t sit well with DirecTV, leading to the appeal. Arguments began in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in December 2024, and 12 months later Circuit Judges Chin and Menashi sided with DirecTV, while Judge Sullivan dissented in the 2-1 ruling overturning Castel’s decision.
A Supreme Court appeal plea was not considered by the nation’s highest court.
