The Young People Tune Out TV News

The flickering blue glow of the television in Robert Sides’ childhood home in Fountain was once the undisputed hearth of Colorado information, a ritual of network affiliates and scheduled broadcasts that defined the state’s media landscape for decades. But for Sides, a 20-year-old junior at Colorado State University, that legacy of the captive audience is a relic. As he anchors and reports for the student-run CTV in Fort Collins, streaming live to YouTube, the impending seismic shift of Denver’s broadcast market doesn't rattle him. While industry veterans and federal regulators fret over the $6.2 billion takeover of 9News parent company Tegna by Nexstar Media Group—the Texas-based titan that already owns Denver’s Fox31—Sides sees a world where the logo on the building matters less than the content on the feed. He is part of a generation comfortable navigating a fragmented ecosystem of TikTok, Instagram, and Reddit, viewing the high-stakes chess of corporate consolidation as a battle for a kingdom that is rapidly shrinking.

The Federal Communications Commission’s March approval of the merger has sent shockwaves through the national news industry, creating a behemoth with 265 stations reaching 80% of U.S. households. The scale of the deal has triggered a wave of antitrust litigation, including a high-profile suit joined by the Colorado Attorney General’s office. A federal judge is currently weighing a claim by DIRECTV that the merger would effectively create a broadcast monopoly, a decision that has stalled the deal as of late Friday. For the news directors and producers watching from major markets across the country, the Denver situation serves as a grim case study in the "duopoly" era. If the deal closes, Nexstar is poised to dominate the 17th largest market in the country, controlling heavyweights 9News, KTVD, Fox31, and CW2. Industry experts warn that the consolidation of the storied 9News newsroom into Nexstar’s existing Denver operation is an inevitability, one that likely carries the stench of impending layoffs and a thinning of local editorial voices.

Yet, the anxiety inside the newsroom often fails to translate to the smartphone-carrying public. While older demographics remain tethered to the 6 p.m. broadcast, the data suggests the industry is fighting a war of attrition against time. Nielsen surveys from late 2025 show streaming now accounts for nearly half of all television viewing, while traditional broadcast ratings have cratered by as much as 30% in a single year. For news executives, the math is harrowing: only 15% of adults under 30 follow news regularly, and when they do, it is rarely via a terrestrial signal. This creates a desperate paradox for companies like Nexstar and Tegna; they are aggressively consolidating to survive as their primary audience of Baby Boomers dwindles, even as trust in national news organizations falls below 30% in recent Gallup polls.

There is a silver lining that remains the industry's strongest leverage: the enduring trust in local journalism. Despite the national cynicism, nearly three-quarters of Americans still trust their local outlets. Amanda Mountain, president and CEO of Rocky Mountain Public Media, notes that this trust is built on honest, independent connections that are often diluted by mega-mergers. This sentiment is echoed by academics like Angelica Kalika at the University of Colorado Boulder, who argues that simply buying up "loved broadcast stations" is no substitute for actual innovation. She points to the success of 9News anchor Kyle Clark, whose "Next" program has found a national spotlight by blending traditional reporting with digital-friendly feedback loops and humor. Despite Clark’s individual success, 9News has recently lost its long-held ratings dominance to Fox31 in several key time slots, underscoring the volatility of a market in flux.

Inside the stations, the atmosphere is one of disciplined silence. Employees at 9News and representatives for Nexstar have declined to comment, citing the ongoing legal battles that have turned a business deal into a federal standoff. The backdrop of this silence is a shifting regulatory climate in Washington, where FCC Chairman Brendan Carr has signaled a desire to "delete, delete, delete" what he views as antiquated ownership caps. Carr dismisses monopoly fears, noting that even a post-merger Nexstar would control only a fraction of total U.S. broadcasters. But for the young journalists graduating into this environment, the debate isn't about FCC regulations or ownership percentages. It is about whether the profession remains a viable career or if they are better off taking the risk to start their own hyper-local, independent outlets to avoid the cycle of corporate downsizing that has defined the industry for a generation.

H/T The Denver Post