Nexstar Media Group (NXST) Earnings: Q3 2026 Results

The quarter ended September 30, 2026 and Nexstar Media Group published the results on November 5, 2026. Revenue and diluted EPS are shown against Q3 2025, the same quarter a year earlier, which takes seasonal swings out of the comparison.

• Nexstar closed its acquisition of TEGNA on March 19, 2026, so Q3 2026 includes a full quarter of TEGNA and Q3 2025 includes none. TEGNA added $765 million of net revenue in the quarter.
• On April 17, 2026 a federal court in the Eastern District of California issued a preliminary injunction prohibiting further integration of Nexstar and TEGNA, subject to certain exceptions, pending a trial on the merits set for July 6, 2027.
• Net income and EPS on this page are attributable to Nexstar Media Group. Net income including noncontrolling interests was $250 million, against $65 million a year earlier.

Source: Nexstar Media Group Q3 2026 earnings release, November 5, 2026. Also in the Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2026. Figures as reported; checked against the release on November 10, 2026.

How Nexstar Media Group splits revenue in its own release, under its own labels, for Q3 2026 against Q3 2025. Indented lines are parts of the line above them.

• Nexstar Media Group's Distribution revenue was $1.1 billion in Q3 2026, up 54% from $709 million in Q3 2025, 51% of total revenue.
• Nexstar Media Group's Advertising revenue was $1.0 billion in Q3 2026, up 115% from $476 million in Q3 2025, 48% of total revenue.
• Nexstar Media Group's Other revenue was $19.0 million in Q3 2026, up 46% from $13.0 million in Q3 2025, under 1% of total revenue.

Segment lines are the figures writers cite most often, because they show where the growth in a quarter came from. Companies redraw their segments from time to time and restate the prior year to match, so a year-ago figure here can differ from the one printed a year ago. When that has happened, the note above says so.

Revenue and diluted EPS for the last 5 quarters. Each date links to that quarter's release.

Net revenue and diluted EPS attributable to Nexstar, each as first reported in that quarter's release. Quarters from Q1 2026 include TEGNA from its March 19, 2026 acquisition date.

We do not hold a confirmed date for Nexstar Media Group's next report. Companies post the date on their investor relations site a few weeks ahead, usually with the time of the conference call.

Each quarter keeps its own page with the figures as reported, so a link to one stays pointed at the same numbers after the next report.

• Q3 2026 (this page), reported Nov 5, 2026

Nexstar Media Group reported record quarterly net revenue of $2,133 million in Q3 2026, up 78.0% from $1,198 million. Distribution revenue was $1,091 million, advertising revenue $1,023 million and other revenue $19 million. Nexstar put the increase primarily down to $765 million of incremental revenue from its acquisition of TEGNA and higher advertising and distribution revenue from its legacy business units. (Nexstar Q3 2026 earnings release, Nov 5, 2026)

Distribution revenue, Nexstar's largest category, comes mainly from cable, satellite and virtual pay-TV distributors paying to retransmit its stations and carry NewsNation, typically based on subscriber counts, plus affiliation fees from CW affiliates and spectrum leasing. It rose $382 million, of which $352 million came from TEGNA. The legacy Broadcast units added $29 million from higher rates, the absence of a one-time charge taken in Q3 2025, growth in vMVPD and other streaming subscribers and new CW affiliations, partly offset by MVPD subscriber attrition and affiliation replacements on six stations previously affiliated with CBS. (Nexstar Form 10-Q, Q3 2026, Nov 5, 2026)

Advertising revenue rose $547 million, with $405 million from TEGNA and a $163 million increase in political advertising at the Broadcast units, as 2026 is an election year. Non-political revenue at those units fell $18 million, which Nexstar attributed to political crowd-out and ongoing market softness. Total political advertising revenue was $317 million, against $10 million in Q3 2025. (Nexstar Form 10-Q, Q3 2026, Nov 5, 2026)

Nexstar now reports two segments. The Broadcast segment, covering Nexstar's own stations, NewsNation, two multicast networks and WGN-AM, had net revenue of $1,305 million, up from $1,131 million, and segment profit of $567 million. The TEGNA segment, which includes TEGNA's stations and the Premion advertising platform, had net revenue of $765 million and segment profit of $242 million. The CW sits in Nexstar's nonreportable other segments. Nexstar holds an 80.8% interest in The CW and a 31.3% stake in TV Food Network, which it accounts for as an equity method investment. (Nexstar Form 10-Q, Q3 2026, Nov 5, 2026; Nexstar Form 10-K, 2025, Feb 27, 2026)

As of September 30, 2026 Nexstar owned, operated, programmed or provided sales and other services to 265 full power television stations in 132 markets in 44 states and the District of Columbia, affiliated with CBS, FOX, NBC, ABC, The CW, MyNetworkTV and other networks. In the quarter Nexstar extended its FOX affiliation in 41 markets, and Nexstar and TEGNA extended CW affiliations in 66 and 8 markets. (Nexstar Form 10-Q, Q3 2026, Nov 5, 2026; Nexstar Q3 2026 earnings release, Nov 5, 2026)

Nexstar Media Group's diluted EPS was $7.92 in Q3 2026, up from $2.14, on net income attributable to Nexstar of $255 million against $70 million. Nexstar does not report an adjusted EPS figure. Its non-GAAP measures are Adjusted EBITDA, $756 million against $358 million, and Adjusted Free Cash Flow, $443 million against $166 million. (Nexstar Q3 2026 earnings release, Nov 5, 2026)

Nexstar said net income rose primarily because of operating income from TEGNA and higher political advertising, partly offset by higher interest, income tax and one-time expenses connected with the TEGNA transaction. Interest expense, net was $186 million, against $94 million, and transaction, other one-time and restructuring expenses were $30 million. The effective tax rate was 27.1%, against 32.3% a year earlier. (Nexstar Q3 2026 earnings release, Nov 5, 2026; Nexstar Form 10-Q, Q3 2026, Nov 5, 2026)

Diluted weighted average shares were 31,013 thousand, against 30,649 thousand. Nexstar bought back no stock in Q3 2026 and paid $58 million in dividends. It repaid $350 million of debt in the quarter and a further $525 million of its secured credit facilities after September 30, leaving total debt of $11,409 million at quarter end, up from $6,333 million at December 31, 2025. (Nexstar Q3 2026 earnings release, Nov 5, 2026)

Diluted EPS divides net income by the weighted average number of shares outstanding in the quarter, plus the shares that options and other equity awards could add. Buybacks shrink that count and lift EPS for the same profit; share issuance and stock awards enlarge it.

Nexstar Media Group's Q3 2026 release does not include a financial outlook for the fourth quarter or the full year. (Nexstar Q3 2026 earnings release, Nov 5, 2026)

The release says the preliminary injunction has affected Nexstar's ability to execute on the synergies expected from TEGNA. Because the trial on the merits is set for July 6, 2027 and synergies only count toward its covenant test if expected within 18 months of the deal, Nexstar removed projected synergies from its leverage calculation, which put total net leverage at 4.04x. (Nexstar Q3 2026 earnings release, Nov 5, 2026)

A consensus figure is the average of the models published by the analysts who cover Nexstar Media Group, collected by a data provider and revised up to the day of the report. A quarter that lands above it says how expectations were set as much as how the business did, and the share price on the day also reflects the guidance and the lines no consensus covers.

The consensus figures on this page are Yahoo Finance's, as pulled on the date shown. Each comes with the number of analysts behind it; the smaller that number, the more one revised estimate can move the average.

The figures below are the ones Nexstar Media Group's own release and filings put weight on for Q3 2026, with the latest reported value for each.

What the quarter means for a holding is a separate question from what it reported. The case for and against owning NXST is on is NXST a buy or a sell?, what analysts expect next is on the NXST forecast, and what the company does is on the Nexstar Media Group (NXST) stock page.

Every number on this page can be traced to a document Nexstar Media Group published. Checking one takes a couple of minutes, and it is worth doing before you quote a figure anywhere.

• The results release is the document linked in the source line above. Companies publish it on their investor relations site at the moment results go out, and it carries the headline tables: revenue, operating income, net income and EPS for the quarter and the year-ago quarter.
• The same release is filed with the SEC as Exhibit 99.1 to a Form 8-K under Item 2.02, usually on the day of the report. The SEC copy does not change after the fact, which makes it the safer thing to link when you cite a number.
• The quarterly report (Form 10-Q) follows within a few weeks and carries the full financial statements, the segment note and management's discussion of what changed. The fourth quarter is covered by the annual report (Form 10-K) instead.
• Restated comparisons are flagged in the notes on this page. When a company redraws its segments or changes how it adjusts EPS, it restates the year-ago column, so the year-ago figure in a new release can differ from the one printed a year ago. This page always uses the comparison in the newer release, because that is the like-for-like one.

A walk-through of every line in a release, with what each one tells you, is in how to read an earnings report.