Newsmax hits Fox with an antitrust lawsuit, accusing it of hogging the right-wing cable news market

Right-wing cable news outlet Newsmax sued conservative media giant Fox Corp. on Wednesday, alleging that the Murdoch family-controlled conglomerate holds an illegal monopoly in the “right-leaning pay TV news market.”

In the antitrust lawsuit, filed in a Florida federal court, Newsmax accuses Fox Corp. and its Fox News network of engaging in an “exclusionary scheme to increase and maintain its dominance” in that market.

Newsmax alleges in the court papers that if not for Fox’s “anticompetitive behavior,” the rival cable news outlet would have “achieved greater pay TV distribution and grown into a more “valuable” media company.

Earlier this year, Newsmax — which was founded in 1998 — went public and has a market capitalization of $1.8 billion, while Fox Corp. has a market capitalization of more than $25 billion.

The lawsuit alleges that Fox pressures distributors into “unfair” deals that blocks those distributors from carrying competitors of Fox News, including Newsmax, or imposes financial penalties on distributors if they carry Newsmax or other rivals.

Fox, the lawsuit says, exploits its market power by “conditioning carriage agreements on the distributor’s agreement not to carry any right-leaning news channel, including Newsmax, that directly competes with Fox News.”

Representatives for Fox did not immediately respond to a request for comment by Business Insider. Attorneys for Newsmax also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

To bolster its case, Newsmax cites in its 37-page lawsuit internal messages from current and former Fox leaders that were revealed by Dominion Voting Systems’ blockbuster defamation lawsuit against Fox News. In 2023, Fox News settled the lawsuit just as it was about to go to trial, agreeing to pay Dominion $787.5 million.

“Publicly available internal Fox communications reveal that Fox views Newsmax as a significant competitive threat,” Newsmax’s lawsuit says, pointing to comments by former Fox News host Tucker Carlson and media mogul Rupert Murdoch, who launched Fox News in 1996.

The lawsuit cites comments from Carlson who wrote to his then-producer that an “alternative like Newsmax could be devastating to us.” Among others, the lawsuit also points to a comment from Murdoch to Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott saying that Newsmax “should be watched.”

“Acting on this concern, Fox has pursued a coordinated, behind-the-scenes campaign to suppress Newsmax,” and other competitors like One America News Network “in the market for right-leaning pay TV news content,” the lawsuit says.

“These exclusionary practices, supported by Fox’s monopoly power, have harmed competition, restricted consumer choice, and led to supracompetitive prices for consumers,” the lawsuit alleges.

Newsmax alleges that most distributors agree to Fox’s carriage restrictions “because Fox gives them no other option.”

“Fox successfully blocks competitors like Newsmax by coercing pay TV operators, threatening steep financial penalties if they dare add Newsmax to their basic tier,” the lawsuit says.

The complaint adds, “In effect, Fox at times refuses to license its indispensable sports, news, and entertainment channels unless the distributor either excludes rival right-leaning news networks entirely, restricts their distribution by placing them in little-watched tiers, or otherwise agrees to put them at a competitive disadvantage.”

The lawsuit is seeking a jury trial, an unspecified amount in monetary damages, and wants the court to declare that Fox has violated federal and state antitrust laws.

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