OAN Losses Again

OAN tries to pass itself off as a cable news channel, but it is nothing more than a propaganda arm for the far right.

OAN tried to sue DirecTV for dumping them off the system. It did not go well.

A California judge has ruled in favor of DirecTV in a breach of contract lawsuit filed by Herring Networks over DirecTV’s decision to drop the One America News (OAN) cable network in January 2022. The ruling was made by Judge John Meyer of the Superior Court of California in San Diego County.

Herring had sued DirecTV when it announced its plans to stop carrying the channel when its distribution agreement expired. DirecTV also dropped another Herring channel, AWE. DirecTV represented the bulk of the distribution of OAN, a conservative-oriented channel that was sued by voting machine companies Dominion and Smartmatic for stories it aired regarding fraud in the 2020 election.

DirecTV’s former parent company AT&T helped support OAN with fees that represented as much as 90% of the network’s revenue, according to a report from Reuters. One America News was also dropped by Verizon in July 2022, leaving it with almost no pay-TV distribution.

OAN has remained on the air by getting distribution from broadcast television stations in about 30 markets. DirecTV is pleased with the outcome of the lawsuit and stated in a statement, “While we’ve anticipated this positive outcome, we’re pleased the judge has ruled in our favor and dismissed OAN’s central claims regarding our decision to not renew a commercial agreement with the programmer.”