DirecTV Cancels Newsmax

In a decision that Newsmax has declared ‘political censorship,’ DirecTV has canceled the conservative news channel from its ongoing television lineup. In response, DirecTV has made their position clear, that this had nothing to do with politics and everything to do with a dispute over carrier fees.

According to DirecTV, Newsmax demanded more money for their offerings that the service provider just didn’t want to cover.

In explaining their move to The Hill, DirecTV stated: “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.

Anyone, including our customers, can watch the network for free via NewsmaxTV.com, YouTube.com and on multiple streaming platforms like Amazon Fire TV, Roku, and Google Play. We continually evaluate the most relevant programming to provide our customers and expect to fill this available channel with new content.”

Newsmax CEO Chris Ruddy said of the cancelation that, “This is a blatant act of political discrimination and censorship against Newsmax. The most extreme liberal channels, even with tiny ratings, get fees from AT&T’s DirecTV, but Newsmax and OAN need to be deplatformed.”

Similarly last year, DirecTV chose not to renew its contract with conservative network One America News.