Nexstar CEO Perry Sook began the company’s first quarter earnings call Thursday with a 5-minute update on the company’s efforts to fend off a legal challenge to its $6.2 billion merger with rival Tegna .

DirecTV and a collection of state attorneys general filed a lawsuit to try to undo the merger, which was closed soon after the FCC approved it. The Department of Justice’s antitrust division has also signed off, but plaintiffs in the lawsuit say the deal will be a clear monopoly play. A District Court judge agreed with the monopoly claims, but Nexstar has appealed the decision in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

From any perspective, the merger would be a dramatic change for the media landscape, resulting in a combined entity with reach to 80% of U.S. households, more than twice the current federal limit.…