MAGA cable channel One America News has been on life support since satellite provider DirecTV dropped the far-right conspiratorial network from its lineup this spring. It now looks like it may be DOA.
Verizon Fios, currently the largest pay-TV platform still carrying OAN, announced on Thursday afternoon that it had been unable to come to terms with the network’s owners on a new agreement and would no longer carry the channel after this month.
“Our negotiation with OAN has been a typical, business-as-usual carriage negotiation like those that routinely happen between content distributors and content providers. These negotiations were focused on economics, as they always are, but OAN failed to agree to fair terms,” a Verizon spokesperson said in a statement.
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“Since we were unable to reach an agreement, effective July 31, 2022, we will no longer have the rights to provide our customers with this programming, and it will be removed from the Fios TV lineup,” the statement continued.
“Our company has long advocated for providing customers with the ability to choose what content they want to watch, and our Fios TV platform offers a wide and diverse choice of programming options, including a la carte options, that strive to meet our millions of customers' various content needs and preferences,” the telecommunications company concluded.
Following DirecTV’s decision to drop the pro-Trump channel, depriving OAN of its biggest revenue stream by far, the channel has gone through an existential crisis. Besides dealing with a talent exodus and dropping employee morale, One America News also faces billion-dollar lawsuits over the election lies spread by its hosts.
Meanwhile, even as the network has lobbed attacks at Verizon as their deal was about to expire, CEO Robert Herring Sr. has begged other cable companies to pick up the struggling channel. He even went so far as to peddle far-fetched rumors that Elon Musk was going to buy the network (something Musk quickly shot down.)
At the same time, however, the network’s hosts have also urged viewers to dig up dirt on executives of companies that had dropped OAN, not exactly helping Herring’s cause to attract new customers.
Now that it is without Fios, which only had 3.7 million subscribers as of last fall, the pickings are extremely slim for One America News. According to industry site NextTV, after DirecTV axed OAN, the channel was only estimated to make $550,000 a month from pay-TV carriage fees—most of which came from Verizon.
Now, that’s gone.
Currently, the only cable provider in the U.S. still offering OAN is Alaska-based General Communications Inc. Unfortunately for the network, GCI is only available in a little over 100,000 households and is looking to completely ditch cable for streaming. Beyond that, OAN is available on little-known digital platforms Vifgo and KlowdTV.
One network insider told The Daily Beast that OAN has recently made a push to concentrate on online content that will “go viral” on social media, suggesting that the network’s strategy is to pivot to digital. Another staffer said they are “trying to leave ASAP” as the channel’s prospects continue to dim.
While OAN will no longer be available on Fios, right-wing cable viewers can take solace in the fact that the carrier will still carry one of OAN’s chief rivals. On Wednesday, a Verizon spokesperson told The Daily Beast that the company had “signed a contract with Newsmax and are pleased to continue to offer their content to our customers.”
