One America News host Dan Ball lashed out at Frontier Communications on Wednesday night after the small cable carrier dropped the stridently MAGA network, telling Frontier that the company knows “where you can stick it.”
In recent months, OAN has dealt with an existential crisis and is essentially on life support as the channel has lost almost all of its pay TV subscriptions. Satellite provider DirecTV, which was responsible for the vast amount of One America News’ revenue, dropped the network in April. Verizon FIOS, at the time the conspiratorial far-right network’s largest remaining carrier, followed suit in July.
Earlier this month, Frontier—a struggling telecommunications firm with less than 500,000 video subscribers—decided it was also done with the Trumpy network.
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“Starting on November 1, 2022, One America News Network (OAN) and A Wealth of Entertainment (AWE) will no longer be available in your line-up,” the company stated in a note, first flagged by Media Matters, to customers. “Our contract will expire and we have made the decision not to renew. These decisions are informed by customer viewership, programming costs and programming availability on numerous platforms.”
The day after Frontier booted OAN from its lineup, Ball ended the broadcast of his OAN program Real America by reading aloud a viewer’s email complaining about the cable provider’s decision.
“Can’t believe Frontier really pulled OAN yet allow CNN & MSNBC,” the email began. “No freedom of speech? We will be canceling Frontier service in Bradenton, FL.”
Informing his audience that it was indeed true that Frontier dropped OAN, Ball then proceeded to cast the company with the likes of other carriers that severed ties with the truth-defying channel.
“So that adds up, the tally now this year, from DirecTV, Verizon, to Frontier," he grumbled. "Three major carriers censoring One America News. You three know where you can stick it!”
He then reacted to the viewer wondering if they could instead subscribe to other local options such as Spectrum, Cox or CenturyLink, prompting Ball to inform the audience that none of those other three providers offer One America News either.
Instead, Ball pitched the network’s streaming app Klowd TV as a possible option to view OAN and its sister network AWE, adding that viewers could also just stream the channel directly from the One America News’ website.
“Both those apps are like $4.99 a month and you will get nonstop live feed to OAN, no other party involved,” he concluded. “No money going to those a-holes at those other providers.”
This isn’t the first time that the temperamental star has taken to the air to blast a company for no longer doing business with OAN. After DirecTV announced it was dropping the channel earlier this year, Ball urged his audience to dig up “dirt” on the chairman of AT&T, which is the majority owner of the satellite TV giant.
As OAN continues to bleed cable subscribers and carriage fees, owner Robert Herring has scrambled to drum up revenue and expand OAN’s rapidly decreasing television footprint. Besides begging cable providers to pick up his channel, trying to increase its streaming audience and signing distribution deals with obscure services, OAN is attempting a comeback via free broadcast TV.
Bloomberg reported last month that One America News is now available on so-called “subchannels” known as “diginets” in roughly 30 local television markets in the United States. These subchannels, which are split from local broadcast networks, are available via TV antennas following the government-mandated switch to digital broadcasting. According to Nielsen, roughly 15 percent of households currently use antennas.
