DirecTV has informed Herring Networks that DirecTV satellite TV and DirecTV Stream virtual MVPD platforms will no longer carry the programmer's controversial One America News Network (OAN) after the current program licensing deal with the Herring expires in April.
Another Herring channel, A Wealth of Entertainment, will also not return to the DirecTV programming grid.
"We informed Herring Networks that, following a routine internal review, we do not plan to enter into a new contract when our current agreement expires," a DirecTV rep said in an email to Next TV Friday night, confirming an earlier Bloomberg report.
“DirecTV made the responsible decision to drop OAN. OAN is a cauldron of misinformation and extremism," said Media Matters in a statement.
Also read: DirecTV Rep: There Are No Plans to Drop OAN Through the Current Carriage Deal
The announcement comes three months after AT&T, which still owns the majority of DirecTV after spinning the satellite TV carrier off in a joint venture with private equity firm TPG last summer, came under fire for not only serving as OAN's biggest distributor, but also having a big supporting role in the channel's launch.
Testimony made two years ago amid an employment lawsuit, including a deposition made by OAN founder and CEO Robert Herring Sr., shows that AT&T might have contributed as much as 90% of OAN's revenue since the company was launched in 2013.
One America News Network has been one of the most aggressive proponents of former President Donald Trump's "Big Lie," the completely unsubstantiated assertion that the 2020 presidential election was undermined by wide-scale cheating.
“DirecTV made a negligent mistake in 2021 when they renewed their contract with OAN even after OAN spent weeks attacking the election and stoking the embers that helped fuel the January 6 insurrection. They gave OAN a full year to undermine our democracy - and our country suffered for it," Media Matters added.
OAN now lacks carriage on the largest U.S. pay TV services, a cadre that also includes Comcast, Charter Communications and Dish Network.
Verizon Fios remains OAN's largest pay TV distributor, along with a gaggle of smaller operators, including upstart vMVPD Vidgo.
The loss of key distribution comes as OAN and its conservative infotainment rivals, Newsmax and Fox News, are each facing lawsuits from several different makers of voting machines, following bogus on-air assertions that these manufacturers "rigged" their equipment to skew the election results in favor of the winner, President Joe Biden.
