Verizon Fios One is the latest provider to leave the American News (OAN) network, a move that leaves the right-wing news channel without a major carrier, as previously reported. The Daily Beast, In a notice on its website, Verizon states that viewers will no longer have access to OAN starting July 31.
“Our negotiations with OAN have been a normal, business-as-usual carriage negotiation, which regularly takes place between content distributors and content providers,” Verizon said in a statement. The Daily Beast, “These talks were focused on economics as usual, but OAN failed to agree on fair terms.” Verizon did not immediately respond ledgeComment request.
OAN, which is owned by California-based Herring Networks, has faced criticism for allegedly “promoting conspiracy theories and lies.” In 2020, YouTube suspended the network’s channel after promoting a fake cure for COVID-19. OAN has also become the subject of a defamation lawsuit filed by electronic voting system company Dominion over false allegations that its machines interfered with the 2020 US election. Another voting systems company, Smartmatic, ordered OAN and other conservative stations to withdraw their claims about voter fraud.
Last year, 16 civil rights, human rights and media justice groups signed a letter urging DirecTV to leave OAN, which it eventually did. The AT&T spinoff decided not to renew its contract with OAN in January and officially dropped the channel in April. OAN sued DirecTV and AT&T, claiming the companies “bowed to political pressure” and could potentially cause the network to shut down. Now that Verizon and DirecTV have both dropped OAN, the channel does not have a major broadcast platform in the US – OAN is now only available to stream online or on select local stations.