DirecTV dumps Newsmax

On the surface, this should have been a typical cable package negotiation in an era of cord-cutting, shrinking subscription numbers, and reduced television revenues. Instead, it looks like it will become yet another salvo in the ongoing culture wars and partisan gripes fueling American politics and cable news.

“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,” a DirecTV spokesperson told The Daily Beast shortly after midnight on Wednesday. …

Just before DirecTV dumped the network, Newsmax published a preemptive article bashing the provider over the likely “deplatforming.” Newsmax CEO Chris Ruddy also accused DirecTV of lying to media outlets about the network demanding carriage fees for its free streamed content.

“That is simply false. DirecTV knows that no operator pays a fee while Newsmax streams free,” Ruddy 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,” he proclaimed.