The FCC approved a station swap agreement that could allow the same company to operate two TV stations in Colorado Springs.

Under this week’s agreement, KOAA and KKTV would both be owned by the E.W. Scripps Company, creating a duopoly, or a scenario where one company owns two of the four largest TV stations in a particular market.

A Scripps spokesperson said the deal has yet to close, but the FCC ruling allows it to proceed.

The agreement, first reported by The Gazette in July, will allow Scripps, which already owns KOAA, to take over KKTV from Gray TV. Scripps will also acquire two Grand Junction stations — KKCO, the NBC affiliate, and KJCT, the low-power ABC affiliate. KOAA is a Gazette news partner.

In its letter, the FCC found that the station swap agreement did not violate rules and that concerns raised by the American Television Alliance (ATVA) and the Internet & Television Association (NCTA) failed to provide specific arguments that the swap would be “inconsistent with the public interest.”  

“We conclude that grant of the applications will result in public interest benefits and serve the public interest, convenience and necessity,” the letter said. “The informal objections focus primarily on alleged retransmission consent harms raised by the proposed combinations. … We find these alleged harms to be speculative.” 

Colorado Springs is served by four stations: KRDO 13, KKTV 11, KOAA 5 and KXRM 21. Channel 11 is the state’s oldest station outside of the Denver area. It signed on the air on Dec. 7, 1952, behind Denver’s KWGN-2 and KUSA – better known as 9News, which is also a Gazette news partner. More than a year later, KOAA followed, signing on the air on July 13, 1953. KRDO and KXRM followed in late 1953 and early 1985, respectively. 

KRDO is owned by the News-Press & Gazette Company, and Nexstar owns KXRM.  

Scripps also will acquire two stations in Twin Falls, Idaho, where it already owns another local station. In return, Gray will acquire a station in Lansing, Mich., and a station in Lafayette, La. The Lansing acquisition will create a duopoly in that market.

Neither Scripps nor Gray is receiving cash in the transaction.

As for the impact in the Pikes Peak region, Scripps said it was premature to get into specific plans because the deal has not closed.

“Across our markets, Scripps invests in strong local journalism, with reporters who live and work in the communities they serve,” a spokesperson with Scripps said. “That’s exactly what we’re committed to continuing in Colorado Springs — making sure viewers have the coverage they rely on to stay informed and connected to their communities.”

How the duopolies will impact Colorado remains to be seen, but the subject tends to raise strong feelings.

A study produced by DirecTV and shared with the FCC as it deliberated the Nexstar and TEGNA merger concluded that duopolies are a net negative.  

“By our calculations, in the vast majority of markets in which any broadcaster holds a duopoly, triopoly or quadropoly today, they have consolidated news operations,” the study said. “In the majority of duopolies, triopolies and quadropolies, the co-owned stations offered essentially the same local news.” 

The National Association of Broadcasters pushed back on the DirecTV study’s findings. The NAB said that in duopoly situations, the number of local news telecasts increased by more than 40% and the total hours of newscasts grew by 50% between 2011 and 2023, saying “scale strengthens journalism.”  

“(Ownership rules) prevent broadcasters from achieving the scale necessary to compete for audiences, programming, advertising revenues and investment capital,” said NAB President and CEO Curtis LeGeyt at a Senate Commerce Committee hearing on media ownership. “Some argue that allowing broadcasters to achieve greater scale would reduce local news. The data shows just the opposite.” 

A study by the Chicago Booth Review, a publication of the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business, also disagrees with the DirecTV study.  

It found that in some instances, duopolies have strengthened local news coverage. What matters, according to the March 2025 report, is who owns the combined news stations. The study found that it affects the media market more than the duopoly itself.  

According to the study, Sinclair Broadcast Group generally reduced local coverage while Nexstar Media Group expanded it. Gray Television “made minimal changes.” The E.W. Scripps Company was not included in the study, however.  

“Viewers didn’t respond to any changes by switching stations, the research finds, and there was no significant change in viewers’ knowledge of local politics,” the report said. Existing duopoly rules “are important for preserving competition and offering alternatives should one owner decide to make dramatic changes to local newscasts.”  

A 2014 study by the Pew Research Institute found impacts of duopolies varied. Some had distinctly different newscasts, while other markets would see shared content. As for the local impacts on Colorado Springs’ viewers, that remains to be seen.