Boston: DirecTV plans to quit One America News Network, which is significantly reducing the reach of a Donald Trump-friendly right-wing TV channel widely criticized for spreading misinformation, including false claims from former presidents That he had won the 2020 election.
The satellite television provider said on Saturday that it had informed Herring Network, the owner of the OAN. Inc., that he will no longer run two of his channels when his contract expires. The second, AWA, is a lifestyle channel. It is believed that with this decision, OAN will be removed from lakhs of homes.
A DirecTV spokesperson said in an emailed statement, “We have informed Herring Networks that, following regular internal review, we do not plan to enter into a new contract when our current agreement expires.”
The spokesperson would not say when the contract expires, but Bloomberg News, which first reported the development on Friday, said it expires in early April.
San Diego-based Herring Networks did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
Bloomberg said DirecTV is OAN’s largest distributor. On its website, Herring says that OAN is run by Verizon FiOS and several small TV providers. It can also be streamed online. Major cable companies including Comcast and Charter do not maintain OANs.
AT&T owns a 70% stake in DirecTV, which has operated OAN since April 2017, when AT&T settled a lawsuit seeking to take the channels. Herring Networks claimed that AT&T had refused an agreement to carry OAN on DirecTV, which it had acquired in 2015.
OAN became a darling of Trump during his presidency and continued to report his claim that the 2020 presidential election was rigged against him, which directly contradicted the facts and thorough reporting. It has made Trump live in a post-presidential appearance, with its journalists refusing to challenge his contradictory claims.
Dominion Voting Systems sued OAN and other right-wing broadcasters in August, claiming they harmed the election technology company’s business by trumpeting lies spread by Trump followers that it was involved in an election-rigging conspiracy. Was.
DirecTV doesn’t provide a breakdown of its subscribers, but AT&T reported that there were a total of 15.4 million paid premium TV subscribers in the second quarter of 2021, including DirecTV, AT&T U-verse wireline video, and online service AT&T TV.
The paid TV market continues to shrink as more people leave it for streaming services.
Disclaimer: This post has been self-published from the agency feed without modification and has not been reviewed by an editor
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