Apparently, openly bigoted, anti-science, Trump cheerleading, and overall anti-democratic rhetoric is no longer welcome on prime time… well, at least one particular station is. Verizon Fios announced late Thursday they are dropping One America News. Ever the gentleman, the last major TV carrier for the beacon of media bigotry said that negotiations were “business as usual.”
In a statement provided to Gizmodo, Verizon said that come July 31, OAN will be removed from the network’s Fios TV slate. The contract with Herring Networks, which owns OAN, is set to expire July 30.
According to Verizon, “These negotiations were focused on economics, as they always are, but OAN failed to agree to fair terms.” The company also said they have “long advocated for providing customers with the ability to choose what content they want to watch, and our Fios TV platform offers a wide and diverse choice of programming options, including a la carte options, that strive to meet our millions of customers’ various content needs and preferences.”
Though as much as Verizon wants to make this about the business of business, reports show the split, at least on OAN’s side, has not exactly been genial. Media Matters reported that OAN had started attacking Verizon, saying one of the largest telecom companies was “targeting OAN and other right-wing organizations.” Far-right mouthpieces like Breitbart specifically cited Verizon’s website that contained a so-called “Guide to Misinformation” on its site (an archived version is still available), but that guide has since been removed after these right-wing attacks.
Earlier this year, DirecTV announced they were also dropping the channel, but that came after years of wrangling and OAN even suing the network to keep itself available back in 2017, and the telecom company was forced to continue airing One America News’ right wing screeds as part of a settlement. That’s not to mention that last year reports showed that One America News was almost entirely funded by AT&T, which had previously owned DirecTV.
OAN was never picked up by other major providers. After they were dropped by DirectTV, the news site NextTV reported that OAN had less than 5 million remaining paying TV subscribers, and was barely making $550,000 a month that mostly came from Verizon.
Alongside Brietbart, other far right figures have come to OAN’s corner. Six Republican state attorney generals in March wrote to DirecTV to plead, cajole, and subtly threaten the network to keep Trump’s TV lovechild. Guess we’ll have to wait and see if Texas AG Ken Paxton and crew will try to do the same to Verizon.
So this latest move creates even more chaos for a company that gained prominence during the age of former President Donald Trump. The Daily Beast reported back in April that the network was losing talent fast. The network is only available on a few small digital platforms like KlowdTV. An unnamed insider told The Daily Beast OAN’s next plan is to refocus on social media. Meanwhile, fellow far right channel Newsmax continues to remain on-air with Verizon.