Nexstar Media Group Inc. agreed to buy Tribune Media Co. in a $4.1-billion deal that would create the nation’s largest owner of local television stations, the companies announced Monday.

Nexstar — whose portfolio is composed of 174 stations — outbid private equity giant Apollo Global Management with an all-cash offer of $46.50 a share.

Tribune Media owns and operates 42 local stations reaching about 50 million households. The deal includes Tribune Media’s cable network WGN America; a 31 percent stake in the Food Network; and real estate holdings. The acquisition will give Nexstar a presence in the three largest TV markets — New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, where Tribune has its flagship station, WGN. Nexstar expects to close the transaction in the third quarter of 2019.

Tribune Media would be Nexstar’s second major acquisition in recent years. Nexstar, founded 22 years ago, completed a $4.6-billion deal to buy station group owner Media General in January 2017.

Nexstar executives believe the acquisition would enhance their company’s position as a local media firm by increasing geographic reach. Local TV stations benefit from political advertising spending — which is expected to be robust in 2020 — and fees paid by cable and satellite companies that provide them to subscribers.

Nearly four months ago, a plan for Tribune Media to sell itself to Sinclair Broadcast Group collapsed after the deal became a regulatory and political flashpoint.

Sinclair had proposed to pay $3.9 billion for Tribune Media. Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai expressed “serious concerns” about how Sinclair planned to divest some Tribune stations to meet the national cap on TV-station ownership.

In August, Tribune Media filed a breach-of-contract lawsuit against Sinclair, alleging that Sinclair failed to make its best effort to gain regulatory approval of the sale.

In a conference call Monday, Nexstar President and Chief Executive Perry Sook said he has spoken to Pai and assured him the company will divest stations to comply with the FCC’s ownership regulations. Nexstar has identified 15 markets where it will have to sell stations to meet ownership limits.