Major Provider DirecTV To Drop Cultist Network OAN

Bloomberg News reports:

DirecTV, one of the largest U.S. pay-TV providers, plans to drop One America News Network, dealing a major blow to the conservative channel that’s been criticized for spreading misinformation and had a loyal fan in former President Donald Trump. The satellite-TV provider has notified OAN’s owner, Herring Networks Inc., that it plans to stop carrying the company’s two channels when their contract expires.

OAN depends heavily on DirecTV, its largest distributor, to reach its audience. The channel is still carried on Verizon FiOS and smaller pay-TV providers, according to its website. The broadcast can also be streamed via an online-TV service called KlowdTV. OAN has never been carried by Comcast Corp., Charter Communications Inc. or Dish Network Corp., three other major providers.

CNN reports:

Reuters, citing sworn testimony that an OAN accountant gave in 2020, reported last year that 90% of the channel’s revenue came from subscriber fees paid by AT&T-owned platforms, including DirecTV.

While DirecTV has since been spun off into a standalone company, AT&T still owns 70% of it. (AT&T also owns CNN, though it is spinning off CNN parent company WarnerMedia in a deal with Discovery expected to be completed this year.)

The move by DirecTV to sever ties comes amid a nationwide reckoning about the proliferation of misinformation, disinformation, and conspiracy theories. The decision also comes after significant controversy following Reuters’s story, which reported that AT&T played a key role in OAN’s founding

Media Matters reports:

Since February 2021, Media Matters has been campaigning to get OAN’s current cable providers to drop the channel and to prevent prospective providers from picking up the channel.

As part of that watchdog work, Media Matters has previously documented OAN’s noxious coverage includes a deadly TV campaign against COVID-19 vaccines, hateful anti-LGBTQ content, and a network-wide assault on elections meant to hype bogus claims of fraud and overturn the 2020 results.

The election attacks include a reporter’s nonprofit seeking to fund fraudulent election “audits” around the country, a demented obsession with the MyPillow CEO and his money, and a correspondent’s call for mass executions of election officials.


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