Negotiations hit a standstill on Tuesday between DirecTV and conservative cable channel Newsmax
Prompting the pay-TV provider to cut loose the pro-Trump network from its lineup.
On the surface, this should have been a typical cable package negotiation in an era of cord-cutting, shrinking subscription numbers,
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 ultimatelyNewsmax’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
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
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
DirecTV, a multichannel video programming distributor that currently boasts 13.5 million subscribers