DirecTV has decided to remove cable news channel Newsmax from its offerings. The decision has been met with backlash from conservative media members, with many claiming the satellite provider was “de-platforming” conservative voices.
On Wednesday, Newsmax CEO Chris Ruddy appeared on The Howie Carr Show to discuss the situation and claimed DirecTV got exactly what it wanted.
“This is a blow. Their de-platforming of us was more than symbolic. It was vicious,” Ruddy said. “We’ve been on AT&T DirecTV for over five years, never had a real problem. We were up for renewal on our cable agreements — and like a lot of start-up channels — we weren’t paid a license fee.
“You can really only make it in cable with license fees. All the top 100 channels get paid. And we now have a big audience. We’re the fourth-highest cable news channel, top 16 of several hundred channels, and every other cable operator agreed to pay us a very small fee. DirecTV said ‘We’re not gonna pay you a dime. We’re not gonna pay you a penny. We’re paying you nothing.’ Then they wanted half our advertising block and all sorts of crazy stuff, and they understand that basically not having money, they demonetized us, which effectively censors us, and that was the goal.”
Ruddy later claimed the satellite provider offered 22 “liberal-leaning” news channels but said both OAN and Newsmax — which are “right-leaning” — have been “de-platformed” in the last year.
DirecTV reportedly balked at paying Newsmax a carriage fee because the cable outlet streams its programs for free, pointing to its offering on Roku as an example of why it shouldn’t offer the cable channel — which launched in 2014 — a subscriber fee.
“On multiple occasions, we made it clear to Newsmax that we wanted to continue to offer the network, but ultimately Newsmax’s demands for rate increases would have led to significantly higher costs that we would have to pass on to our broad customer base,” a DirecTV spokesperson said.
The decision by DirecTV has been met with opposition from Congressional Republicans. 42 Republican representatives sent a letter to DirecTV questioning the decision.
“I am sure that DirecTV will claim that removing Newsmax from their lineup of channels was purely a business decision, but that is hard to accept when liberal news channels like Vice Media continue to remain on the air,” the letter authored by Rep. Wesley Hunt (R-TX) and co-signed by 41 others said. “Vice is a ratings failure for DirecTV, yet they continue to profit from their relationship with DirecTV.”
