The Federal Communications Commission announced Thursday evening that it had approved the $6.2 billion merger of major broadcast station owners Nexstar and Tegna. The move came on the same day that attorneys general in eight states and DirecTV filed separate lawsuits seeking to block the deal, arguing that it will lead to higher prices for consumers and stifle local journalism.The FCC said in a statement announcing its approval that Nexstar's acquisition of Tegna will "enable these broadcast TV stations to counter the growing power that national programmers have amassed in recent years." With the deal, Nexstar will still own less than 15% of television stations in the U.S., the FCC said.In a lengthy social media post marking the approval, FCC Chair Brendan Carr said that Nexstar had agreed to "certain concrete conditions" as part of the deal, including "divesting a number of stations, increasing localism, and affordability steps." In its own statement, Nexstar said that the "transaction is essential to…