DirecTV has discontinued Newsmax, a conservative outlet losing a lot of its availability because the two sides couldn’t agree on a new fee.
This dispute does not have anything to do with ideology or politics.
It’s all about money. Newsmax wanted a fee rise in this era of decreasing traditional television viewership and cord cutting.
Sign up for our newsletter
DirecTV announced after midnight that they were pulling the plug, “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.”
Newsmax claims that they are being discriminated against,
“This is a blatant act of political discrimination and censorship against Newsmax,” Christopher Ruddy, CEO of Newsmax said.
“The most extreme liberal channels, even with tiny ratings, get fees from AT&T’s DirecTV, but Newsmax and OAN need to be deplatformed,” Ruddy added.
This is not the same situation as OAN, which was dropped due to low viewership.
A carriage fee is the monthly price that every satellite or cable subscriber pays to receive channels, regardless of whether they are viewed or not.
Fox News is one example of the most expensive television stations. If you don’t like Fox News but still have cable or satellite, you are paying Rupert Murdoch $2One month. ESPN gets $7.64 a month out of every subscriber whether they watch or not.
These types of disputes are common, such as the one between DirecTV & Newsmax. It’s not unusual for subscribers who want to see their favorite shows on a channel, to be told the channel is no longer available because the network wants more money.
Newsmax was tied for 72nd in television viewership in 2022. On average, they reach 184,000 viewers per day. Although the audience is only 10% of Fox News’s, it is likely that they will return to DirecTV if Newsmax drops their demand for a fee hike.
Jason is the managing Editor. He is also a member of the White House Press Pool, and a Congressional correspondent with PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate research was focused on public policy with a specialization within social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of The Society of Professional Journalists, and The American Political Science Association
Source link
[Denial of responsibility! smye-holland.com is an automatic aggregator of the all world’s media. In each content, the hyperlink to the primary source is specified. All trademarks belong to their rightful owners, all materials to their authors. If you are the owner of the content and do not want us to publish your materials, please contact us by email – at smye-holland.com The content will be deleted within 24 hours.]
