“We write to you today to ask for further information on what steps AT&T is doing to resolve these issues because we are concerned about the role AT&T plays in spreading false information to millions of its U-verse, DirecTV, and AT&T TV subscribers. The majority of Americans watch TV to acquire their news. But not all TV news sources are created equal. The right-wing media environment is “far more susceptible…to misinformation, falsehoods, and half-truths,” according to experts.
And less than a year later, DirecTV informed One America News Network that their distribution contract would not be extended. Coincidence? Probably not. Of course, that is what OANN and its followers have asserted, but it would be exceedingly challenging to back up their claim. After another year has passed, AT&T has deplatformed and terminated TWO conservative news organizations.
The fourth-ranked cable network in the nation, according to AT&T, was de-platformed only because it requested a little charge from the company to display its content. According to NEWSMAX, each cable customer was worth around $1 annually. Initially, DirecTV declared that it would never pay a licensing fee to NEWSMAX but would offer the channel for free. In spite of their poor ratings, all other cable news networks pay license costs, many of which are considerable.
For instance, DirecTV pays full carriage and license costs for the Vice channel. Vice has received significant investment from TPG, which runs DirecTV and owns 30% of it (as well as CNN). Vice has 20% of NEWSMAX’s ratings, yet it presently receives compensation online with what NEWSMAX is looking for.
DirecTV pays CNN roughly $14 a year for each customer. DirecTV pays cable licensing fees to all top 75 cable channels, 22 of which are left-leaning news stations with lower ratings. NEWSMAX is a top 20 channel on DirecTV.
NEWSMAX wanted DirecTV to treat it the same as other channels, but they refused, leading to the network’s eventual cancellation. DirecTV’s actions were described by Christopher Ruddy, CEO of NEWSMAX, as “a flagrant act of political discrimination as well as censorship against NEWSMAX.”
