At midnight Tuesday, DirecTV (owned by AT&T) cut Newsmax’s signal, immediately shutting the network off from more than 13 million customers of the satellite service. This is the second time in the past year AT&T has moved to cancel a conservative channel, with DirecTV deplatforming OAN (One America News) in April.
“This is a blatant act of political discrimination and censorship against Newsmax,” said Christopher Ruddy, CEO of Newsmax
Despite Newsmax being the fourth highest-rated cable news channel in the nation — a Top 20 cable news channel overall — and watched by 25 million Americans on cable alone, DirecTV said it was taking the step as a “cost-cutting” measure and would never pay Newsmax a cable license fee.
DirecTV pays cable license fees to all top 75 cable channels and to all 22 liberal news channels it carries. Almost all of these channels are paid hefty license fees significantly greater than that sought by Newsmax – despite the fact that most of the channels have far lower ratings than Newsmax.
“The most extreme liberal channels, even with tiny ratings, get fees from AT&T’s DirecTV, but [in their view] Newsmax and OAN need to be deplatformed,” Ruddy said.
Ruddy urges Newsmax viewers to do the following:
- If you are a DirecTV customer, call 877-763-9762 and demand they bring Newsmax back on air, or you can CANCEL!
- If you are an AT&T customer (for any of their products or services), call and demand they end their censorship of Newsmax, or you will CANCEL! AT&T toll free: 888-855-2338.
- Call your Member of Congress or Senator at 202-224-3121 and demand they stop AT&T and DirecTV’s censorship of conservative media like Newsmax
- Go to online Petition: iWantNewsmax.com
