According to Deadline, an antitrust lawsuit was filed in the federal courts in the state of Florida. The lawsuit is against Fox News. The prosecuting company, Newsmax, is claiming that the Fox Corporation allegedly uses anti-competitive measures to exclude competing conservative media outlets from gaining traction in the market across cable, satellite, and streaming mediums.
The lawsuit against the Fox Corporation also claims that Fox allegedly imposes penalties on distributors, such as higher fees to distribute other Fox channels, if they allow competing right-leaning news outlets access on basic tiers alongside Fox News. Deadline also mentions that Newsmax claims in the lawsuit that Fox is exhibiting “anticompetitive behavior,” which has “significant damages to Newsmax, including in the form of lost business, missed advertising and marketing revenues, and lower cable license fees, all while increasing overall company costs. Newsmax is far from the only victim.”
A Fox spokesperson gave this statement to Deadline: “Newsmax cannot sue their way out of their own competitive failures in the marketplace to chase headlines simply because they can’t attract viewers.”
In response, a Newsmax spokesperson told Deadline, “If Newsmax was such a ratings failure, why has Fox spent so much time, energy, and resources to suppress us, block us, and denigrate us? The answer is obvious. Also, please note that Fox, in its statement, does not deny any of our serious allegations.”
According to Deadline, Fox News has asserted itself across all news channels and cable, which is a key argument in an antitrust case. Additionally, in the lawsuit, Newsmax argues that “consumers who desire right-leaning commentary are much more likely to switch to a channel that shares their ideological perspective than one with a different viewpoint. Right-leaning viewers demonstrate minimal switching to non-right-leaning news outlets like CNN or MSNBC.”
Deadline also noted that Newsmax is seeking three times the damages, which were not noted at this time, that they have allegedly suffered from Fox News.