A year ago, far right cable channel Newsmax was dropped by Atlantic Broadband, Cincinnati Bell and several tier 3 cable operators.
With Democrats still controlling the House of Representatives, and technology-media-telecom press fixated at the time on the distribution problems of another right-wing info channel, One America News Network (OANN), in the aftermath of the January 6 Insurrection, Newsmax's sudden loss of pay TV distribution largely went unnoticed.
This week, however, the programmer's carriage dispute with DirecTV has assumed center stage, with Republican House leaders now heading committees and eager to spotlight their grievances, which often include what they see as the coordinated muting of conservative voices.
Meanwhile, consumer brands like DirecTV are now operating in a suddenly trickier business climate in which the right's culture war winds can quickly blow cold over a large percentage of your customer base, even for cartoon characters shilling candy confections.
As Broadcasting+Cable reported Wednesday morning, following removal of OANN last year, and Newsmax from its programming grid the prior evening, Republican lawmakers are putting pressure on DirecTV, accusing the pay TV operator of "actively working to limit conservative viewpoints on its platform."
Individuals close to DirecTV's dealings claim the operator didn't drop Newsmax. The channel, Next TV was told, was carried on all three platforms of the DirecTV rollup -- DirecTV satellite, DirecTV Stream and AT&T U-verse -- without a carriage fee, with all revenue generated by ad sales. DirecTV, which typically holds back a portion of that ad time, even gave that inventory to Newsmax, the source said. (It was unclear as to how DirecTV made money via this relationship.)
The carriage renewal talks broke down when Newsmax insisted on a traditional carriage fee, the DirecTV source added.
Newsmax largely confirms the basic mechanics of the breakdown, but disputes the business rationale. A Newsmax rep told Next TV that its ad sales arrangement netted DirecTV $2.7 million in profits in 2022.
Newsmax, a press rep added, convinced Dish Network, Verizon Fios and the National Content and Technology Cooperative to agree its carriage fee demands last year.
Further, the rep said, "DirecTV carries 22 liberal or liberal-leaning channels, all of whom get fees. DirecTV believes only one conservative channel [Fox News] should get a fee."
It's still unclear as to what those 22 "liberal" networks are. But Newsmax did say that Vice, an identifiably progressive news channel, only commands around 20% of the audience Newsmax delivers, but still collects a carriage fee from DirecTV.
Audience-wise, that's a sliver of a sliver -- according to Nielsen, Newsmax only averages 101,000 viewers, or around 0.1% of the total U.S. TV audience.
And Vice's situation is a little different -- private equity company TPG, which took on 30% of DirecTV when AT&T spun the service off in 2021, is an investor in Vice, as Newsmax itself notes.
For the most part, Newsmax's argument against DirecTV has been somewhat rhetorical: "This is a blatant act of political discrimination and censorship against Newsmax," Christopher Ruddy, CEO of Newsmax Media, said in a statement. "The most extreme liberal channels, even with tiny ratings, get fees from AT&T's DirecTV, but Newsmax and OAN needed to be de-platformed."
For its part, Dallas-based AT&T was a major backer of former Republican president Donald Trump and his 2017 corporate tax cut. We just don't see the wireless giant as a left-leaning activist company.
As for DirecTV, Next TV noted several weeks ago that the operator is quietly steering customers from its legacy satellite TV and U-verse platforms to DirecTV Stream, which operates with much skinner bundles of channels. At this point, DirecTV -- which saw its base dwindle to around 13 million homes last year -- is probably looking to shed networks, an agenda decidedly based on economic imperative, and which has nothing to do with political bent.
Also notable: Newsmax is demanding a carriage fee, despite the fact that much of its content is distributed in the free ad-supported streaming (FAST) ecosystem. A quick perusal of Newsmax's "find-us" page reveals that beyond what remains distribution far more robust than OANN ever had on its best days, the channel's content can be found on FASTs including The Roku Channel, Pluto TV and Samsung TV Plus.
All of this begs the question, now that Newmax has the political wind at its back: Is it resorting to rhetorical tactics that have frequently proven highly effective in carriage battles? And which now have the support of Congress?
In other words, is this just a typical pay TV carriage battle ... one in which Newsmax is seizing the extreme and dangerous political polarization of our time in order to win?
Could be.
The channel has upcoming renewal stocks slated with Nos. 1 and 2 pay TV operators, Comcast and Charter Communications. Republicans control the House for the next two years. And things could remain -- and get even more -- interesting.
