DirecTV, under pressure from conservative lawmakers since it dropped the right-wing channel Newsmax, told a group of Republican senators that it pays as much for conservative news channels as it does for liberal ones.
In a letter responding questions from to Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), DirecTV general counsel Michael Hartman said that DirecTV carries five channels “that most people would consider to be predominantly news.”
He listed Fox News Channel, CNN, MSNBC, The First and NewsNation.
“By most people’s measure, two lean conservative (Fox News and The First), two lean liberal (CNN and MSNBC) and one is a new channel that is advertising that it is news-focused and in the center (NewsNation),” Hartman said.
DirecTV added The First after dropping Newsmax.
“Fox News is by far the leader in terms of audience and household penetration. Newsmax, when we distributed it, was a distant fourth among news channels to Fox, MSNBC and CNN,” he said. “The amounts DirecTV pays for conservative channels, in the aggregate, is roughly similar to what we pay for liberal channels, in the aggregate.”
In statements, Newsmax has been claiming DirecTV pays license fees to 22 liberal news channels.
In his letter Hartman said that one of the channels identified as a liberal news channel was Vice.
“As to Vice, Newsmax has made allegations of bias based on false claims about DirecTV carriage,” Hartman said. “Contrary to Newsmax’s assertions, DirecTV does not consider Vice a ‘news’ channel, DirecTV only carries Vice as part of our agreement with A+E Networks, under which we pay a lump sum for a suite of channels that happens to include Vice. Thus, whatever fees are paid to Vice are determined by A+E, and not DirecTV.”
Hartman also accused Newsmax of using its news content to spread unfounded claims about its dispute with DirecTV.
“Newsmax is using its news/editorial platform to publish inaccurate and misleading information regarding our contract dispute,” he said. “Each day, the news outlet is publishing nearly two dozen blogs on its website and dozens of posts on its main social handle, creating targeted content for its commentators, leveraging its network of contributors and dedicating significant airtime each hour to our business dispute. In our view these efforts are obscuring facts, not elucidating the news. “
Hartman reiterated that its dispute with Newsmax was a routine carriage negotiation, about economics, not politics.
DirecTV last year dropped One America News Network, another conservative news outlet. artman declined to address the senators’ concerns about OANN.
“With respect to your questions regarding OANN, we are currently in litigation with OANN and as I am sure you can appreciate, we are not in a position to provide any information,” he said. ■
