The satellite-TV company AT&T holds a 70% stake, which could cause a backlash against the satellite-TV company.
DirecTV has been exposed to social media backlash because of the decision to drop the far-right news channel One America Network OAN and its sister channel Wealth of Entertainment.
The satellite provider, which was acquired by former corporate parent AT&T T-Get AT&T Inc. Report, does not have a political motive for the move, despite the fact that it still holds a 70% stake in the company.
After a routine internal review, we did not plan to enter a new contract with Herring Networks when our current agreement ends, a DirecTV spokesperson said in a statement.
Both OAN and a Wealth of Entertainment are owned by Herring Networks, which was founded by Robert Herring Sr.
Far rightist voices see the move as political and took to Twitter to express their disdain.
The idea that OAN was being censored for political reasons led to a general tone on the social media site. According to Pew Research, OAN captured 7% of people who identify as Republican. That relatively small audience, however, has been very dedicated to the channel.
OAN was founded in 2013 and rose to prominence during the Donald Trump presidency. The network bills itself as a news channel, but it has generally operated as a supplier of unchecked information designed to bring in right-wing viewers.
OAN, which rose to prominence amid the triumph and tumult of the administration of then-President Donald Trump, has been criticized for spreading conspiracy theories about the COVID 19 pandemic and the 2020 election, according to the Jerusalem Post.
According to a Reuters investigation, AT&T played a major role in OAN created by Herring.
Herring said during a deposition seen by Reuters in the year 2019 that they told us they wanted a conservative network. They only had one, which was Fox News, and they had seven others on the other left-wing side. When they said that, I jumped to it and built one. According to court records, AT&T, which used to be fully owned DirecTV, provided OAN with tens of millions of dollars. According to a 2020 sworn testimony by an OAN accountant, ninety percent of OAN's revenue came from a contract with AT&T owned television platforms, including satellite broadcaster DirecTV.
The phone and internet giant has denied that it is a source of funding for OAN.