It is a rather desolate future for One America News (OAN) network after it was dropped by Verizon Fios. The cable operator is the last major company to run the right-wing cable channel.
The network failed to settle an agreement with Verizon Fios. This means OAN will no longer be aired in the cable company as of July 31.
The move of Verizon Fios is another hit to OAN as last April it stopped appearing on DirecTV, which is behind the nearly half of the 35 million homes that has access to OAN on cable or satellite TV, as per CBS News.
OAN Failed to Agree to Fair Terms According to Verizon
In a statement to The Daily Beast, Verizon said: "Our negotiation with OAN has been a typical, business-as-usual carriage negotiation like those that routinely happen between content distributors and content providers."
The negotiations, according to the cable company, were focused on economics, however, OAN failed to agree to fair terms.
When requested for a comment, OAN did not respond.
OAN is owned by the California-based Herring Networks. The network has faced criticism in the past for supposedly "peddling conspiracy theories and falsehoods," according to The Verge.
In fact, the network's YouTube channel was suspended in 2020 because it promoted a fake cure for COVID-19.
In the same year, Dominion, an electronic voting system company, filed a defamation lawsuit against OAN due to the false allegations that Dominion's machines interfered with the 2020 US election.
Additionally, Smartmatic, another voting system company, demanded that OAN along with other conservative stations take back their statements about voter fraud.
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OAN Faces a Bleak Future as Cable Companies Dropped the Network
As the deal with Verizon was about to expire, OAN threw attacks at the cable company. Meanwhile, CEO Robert Herring Sr. has plead to other cable companies to take the struggling channel.
The OAN CEO even went as far as start a rumor that Elon Musk was planning to buy the network. Musk immediately shot down the issue.
As the network faces crisis, viewers are encouraged by the hosts to "dig up dirt on executives of companies that had dropped OAN," according to The Daily Beast. This move does not exactly help Herring's attempt to get new customers.
According to NextTV, after DirecTV dropped OAN, the network was estimated to make only $550,000 a month. This comes from pay-TV carriage fees, which mostly come from Verizon.
But OAN is now facing a bleak future as Verizon Fios axed it. The network had 3.7 million subscribers as of last fall from Verizon.
Currently, Alaska-based General Communications Inc. (GCI) is the only cable provider in the U.S. that still offers OAN.
However, GCI has only a little over 100,000 subscribers. Moreover, the company is planning to abandon cable for streaming. Aside from that, the only other platforms where viewers can watch OAN are little known digital platforms Vifgo and KlowdTV.
According to The Daily Beast, one network insider told them that OAN recently made a move to focus on online content that will "go viral" on social media. This suggest that the network is planning to go digital.
Related Article: One America News Network's YouTube Channel Suspended over 'Misinformation' Accusations
