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Knudsen joins other attorneys general to demand OAN be kept on DirecTV – Daily Montanan

['Darrell Ehrlick', 'More From Author', '- March']

Date: 2022-03-14 00:00:00

Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen has joined with five other attorneys general to warn DirecTV: Keep One America News Network or suffer the blowback of Donald Trump supporters and other conservatives who will likely drop the service because of its decision to drop the far-right network sometime next month.

A spokesman for DirecTV told the Daily Montanan that it informed OAN of a decision in Fall 2021 that it would not renew the contract after its parent company, AT&T, spun off the satellite-based content platform that competes with cable and DISH Network. As the company has moved from AT&T ownership, it is evaluating its own content line-up, and OAN was part of that.

The letter by the state leaders expresses strong dissatisfaction with DirecTV’s decision, but mentions no specific legal action, rather just warns of consumer backlash.

Meanwhile, television audiences continue to flock toward streaming services like Netflix, Hulu and stand-alone content channels. For example, in addition to broadcasting on cable and satellite networks, many channels, including CNN, FOX News and OAN have their own streaming services and apps.

OAN has filed suit in a San Diego court against DirecTV for breach of contract and intentional interference.

However, the attorneys general say DirecTV’s decision has nothing to do with business and instead is “viewpoint discrimination … after a crescendo of powerful leftwing voices demanded (DirecTV) take actions against them.”

The letter, whose primary author was Texas Attorney General Ken Patton, cited the Media Matters organization, which has been actively lobbying platform providers like DirecTV to drop the channel they say promotes “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.”

Knudsen’s office did not respond to requests for comment on Monday when contacted by the Daily Montanan.

A spokesman for the company said the reason for the drop was simply a review of all its business, and that contracts with different content providers are renewed or changed often.

While the move may be routine for DirecTV, it comes as a huge blow to OAN. DirecTV accounts for 90 percent of the OAN’s revenue.

Recent Nielsen media ratings show that OAN averages 14,000 viewers at any given time.

The most recent statistics for content platforms, like DirecTV, also show a generally decreasing trend with the rise of streaming services. For example, the last reported subscriptions from DirecTV, published just prior to the AT&T spin-off, show that nationally the service had about 15.1 million subscribers. Officials with DirecTV would not provide a current subscriber number nor how many customers it has in Montana.

The most recent media tracking report at the end of the 2021 estimated the service with just more than 13 million subscribers, down from a high of 21 million in 2017.

The letter accuses DirecTV as kowtowing to the “legacy media’s liberal orthodoxies.”

The top AGs also claim that “the legacy media decided Joe Biden was the next president.”

“Your failure to (renew the contract with OAN) will not only cause you to lose millions of dollars in business, but also drive many millions of Americans to simply cancel your services outright, as President Trump and other leading figures have called for,” the letter said.

In addition to Knudsen and Paxton, four other attorneys general signed the letter: Jeff Landry of Louisiana; Lynn Fitch of Mississippi; Eric Schmitt of Missouri; and Alan Wilson of South Carolina.

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