DirecTV said a California judge has stricken the central claims in a breach of contract lawsuit filed by Herring Networks over DirecTV’s decision to drop the One America News cable network in January 2022.
The ruling was made Friday by Judge John Meyer of the Superior Court of California in San Diego County.
“While we’ve anticipated this positive outcome, we’re pleased the judge has ruled in our favor and dismissed OAN’s central claims regarding our decision to not renew a commercial agreement with the programmer,” DirecTV said in a statement.
Herring sued DirecTV when it said it planned to stop carrying the channel when its distribution agreement expired. DirecTV also dropped another Herring channel, AWE.
DirecTV represented the bulk of the distribution of OAN, a conservative oriented channel that was sued by voting machine companies Dominion and Smartmatic for stories it aired regarding fraud in the 2020 election.
DirecTV’s former parent company AT&T helped support OAN with fees that represented as much as 90% of the networks revenue, according to a report from Reuters.
One America News was also dropped by Verizon in July 2022, leaving it with almost no pay-TV distribution.
OAN has remained on the air by getting distribution from broadcast television stations in about 30 markets. ■
