5. NEXSTAR MEDIA GROUP, Dallas

2016 Spot Revenue: $1.429 billion Stations: 171 in 100 markets Coverage: 39.2% Ownership: Nexstar Broadcasting Group Inc. (NASDAQ: NXST) Key Executives: Perry A. Sook, chairman-president-CEO; Timothy Busch, president, Nexstar Broadcasting; Brian Jones, EVP-COO; Tom Carter, EVP-CFO; Gregory Raifman, president, Nexstar Digital; Tom O’Brien, EVP business development and chief revenue officer; Dione Rigsby, VP technology; Richard Stolpe, VP engineering; Mark Turner, VP station operations.

What’s Up:

In January, the FCC approved Nexstar Broadcasting’s $4.6 billion acquisition of Media General along with spin-offs that were necessary to keep Nexstar in compliance with the FCC’s local and national ownership limits. Shortly thereafter, the deal closed and the company renamed itself Nexstar Media Group. The following months saw the appointment of numerous new general managers at the newly acquired stations. In addition, Melissa Stacy was tapped to head the group’s local broadcast and digital content.

In March, CBS News veteran Bill Mondora was hired to head Nexstar’s expanding Washington, D.C. bureau.

Also in March, Nexstar and Sinclair Broadcast Group formed a consortium to “promote spectrum aggregation, innovation and monetization and enhance their abilities to compete in the wireless data transmission sector.” The consortium, which will be jointly owned and controlled equally by Nexstar and Sinclair, has agreed to collaborate on a non-exclusive basis and the companies said the consortium “is intent on exploring the inclusion of other television broadcasting entities.” In June, they announced that Univision Local Media had also signed on, giving the consortium coverage of about 90% of the U.S.

In April Nexstar merged its local digital advertising and content monetization products into a wholly-owned subsidiary, Nexstar Digital LLC, and appointed Gregory Raifman president. Nexstar Digital employs more than 400 in Los Angeles,  Minneapolis, New York and Austin, Texas.