Nexstar pulling out of CBS Newspath service: Reports

Nexstar Media Group CBS affiliates will drop out of the CBS Newspath service, according to sources.

The service, which provides member stations with video, packages, live hits and other content on national and international stories, is similar to ABC NewsOne and NBC NewsChannel. 

Nexstar pulled its NBC stations out of NBC NewsChannel about a month ago. 

In most cases, affiliates pay for services such as NewsPath as part of their broader affiliate agreements with networks. It appears, however, that Nexstar has been able to negotiate an arrangement that doesn’t include that.

It was unclear how much Nexstar would save by dropping out of CBS Newspath and NBC NewsChannel. It is also not clear what kind of financial hit the networks could take from the shift.

Nexstar will also stop sharing content from its local newsrooms back into CBS Newspath and NBC NewsChannel, which could leave coverage gaps in certain regions given the sheer number of stations Nexstar owns. 

Nexstar will reportedly start relying on its NewsNation network to replace content its stations were getting from their respective network services.

Affiliate news services were launched to help local stations fill time as they began producing more and more local news in the 1990s.

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The model has roots with CNN Newsource, a service that the then-fledgling cable network launched in 1987.

Local stations — no matter what their affiliation — could sign up with the service and, for a fee in addition to content-sharing agreements, would gain access to a broader pool of content from around the country. CNN also contributed its own content for major national and international coverage.

After CNN introduced its service, the broadcast networks replicated the service, though in many cases, stations could still be members of both. CNN typically limited enrollment to one station per market.

As a result of making a broader scope of content available to local newsrooms, local newscasts increasingly began to feature more and more fare from outside their markets — largely because it was less expensive to pull content from a service than to increase staffing to feed the growing demand for local content.

This generated concern that featuring more national and international news in local newscasts would erode network news audiences, though that was avoided for a time. The affiliate services also worked out a formula for emphasizing providing eye-catching live feeds from news such as fires, car accidents and police chases, alongside feel good and quirky stories less likely to make it to a national network newscast.

For a time, affiliate news services were the primary way most local stations could gather content from outside their markets. However, as corporate TV station ownership grew and technology improved, station groups began sharing more content within their corporate family. 

Nexstar, which acquired Tenga in an unprecedented deal earlier in 2026, has marketed the merger as a way for it to invest more in local news.

NewsNation was originally seen as a way for Nexstar, which already had a large reach at the time, to cull content from its local stations and repurpose for a national audience. Though the network still features reporting from its owned stations, it has largely evolved into the typical cable news fare with panels, opinion, analysis and interview content dominating the schedule.

In short, NewsNation quickly realized that it couldn’t compete just by airing stories that were typically available from dozens of other sources. Instead, like its other cable news counterparts, the network began emphasizing content that it could claim as being more exclusive — and often more buzz worthy.  

It’s unclear whether the company is shifting its content strategy for NewsNation or its local stations as it exits affiliate news services.

Other sources have indicated to NCS that Nexstar will exit ABC NewsOne and Fox NewsEdge deals later this summer, with stations using content only from the Associated Press and NewsNation in the future. 

Using NewsNation content makes sense from a broad perspective, given it is a national cable news channel. However, it’s unlikely these services were a large content expense for broadcasters.

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Over the past few months, and again bubbling during the NAB Show, it was noted that Nexstar may eventually rethink more of its larger affiliation relationships as it looks to contain rising costs and create greater shareholder value. 

Nexstar owns The CW network but does not maintain a national news division or an affiliate news service for those stations, instead relying on NewsNation to fulfill many of those functions as needed.