The question isn’t if Nexstar Broadcasting will need to unload television stations to get regulators to approve its $4.1 billion acquisition of Tribune Media but how many and which ones.

Nexstar’s deal announced Monday would enable it to become the country’s largest owner of TV stations, leapfrogging Sinclair Broadcasting whose deal to acquire Tribune collapsed earlier this year after regulators accused Sinclair of providing them misleading information.  Baltimore-based Sinclair has repeatedly denied wrongdoing.

Some critics of the Sinclar-Tribune deal, however, also have qualms about the Nexstar transaction, which would add 42 TV stations along with the WGN cable network and a 31 percent stake in the Food Network.  Nexstar currently owns, operates and services 174 TV stations, reaching 100 markets representing about 40 percent of U.S. television households. Nexstar identified stations in 15 markets that may require divestitures though the company wasn’t specific.

More at Forbes.