Verizon Drops OAN, Leaving Far-Right Network Without Major Distributor: ‘OAN Failed to Agree to Fair Terms’

Drew Angerer, Getty Images

Far-right cable network One America News will be dropped by Verizon’s Fios TV service next weekend after the two parties failed to reach a new contract deal.

The Daily Beast first reported Thursday morning the network might soon be “hard to find” after reporting OAN would be dropped by the telecommunications giant.

Potential OAN viewers who subscribe to DirecTV were lost when AT&T dropped the network from its own lineup in April.

Verizon confirmed Thursday afternoon in a statement to CBS News that OAN will be dropped from Fios after July 30. The company accused the network of a failure to agree to “fair terms.”

.@CBSNews has confirmed @thedailybeast/@justinbaragona‘s reporting that OAN is being dropped by Verizon at the end of the month. Full statement from @Verizon below: pic.twitter.com/Q3aCIE801c

— Jake Rosen (@JakeMRosen) July 21, 2022

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. These negotiations were focused on economics, as they always are, but OAN failed to agree to fair terms.

Since we were unable reach an agreement, effective July 31, 2022, we will no longer have the rights to provide our customers with this  programming, and it will be removed from the Fios TV lineup

Our company has long advocated for providing customers with the ability to choose what content they want 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.

Without DirecTV and now Verizon, OAN viewers in the U.S. will only be able to watch the network’s programming on KlowdTV, GCI and Vidgo.

OAN’s owner, Herring Networks Inc., has not yet commented on being dropped by its last large distributor.

After it was announced the channel was dropped from DirecTV, OAN host Dan Ball asked his viewers to help him find dirt on AT&T board chairman William Kennard.

“You heard me earlier describe who he is, his background, his connection to the Obamas and Clintons for decades,” Ball told his viewers. “Call AT&T’s support line. Complain, raise hell, email, phone call – daily, every hour.”

Ball concluded, “If you’ve got any dirt on Mr. Kennard, I’d love to see it and put it on this program.”