Newsmax reaches deal to return to DirecTV

Newsmax returns to DirecTV Thursday.

The cable provider cut ties with the right-wing media outlet in late January after the companies failed to reach an agreement. The move angered Republican lawmakers, who echoed Newsmax’s claims the severance was politically motivated.

Some conservatives in congress threatened to use their powers to compel AT&T, which owns DirecTV, to account for its decision. But Newsmax said Wednesday a deal had been made.

“Fortunately, it’s become clear that DirecTV supports diversified perspectives, including conservative voices,” Newsmax tweeted.

DirecTV, which immediately replaced Newsmax with another conservative outlet in January, told the Daily News in a statement its “all-too-common carriage dispute” with the feverishly pro-Trump network ended in “mutually agreeable business terms.”

Details about the companies’ agreement on carriage fees — the rate a TV provider pays individual networks — were not disclosed. DirecTV has consistently maintained the dispute was never about politics.

But returning to satellite TV isn’t the end of Newsmax’s concerns.

The network faces multi-billion dollar lawsuits from election technology companies Dominion Voting Systems and Smartmatic in connection with the network’s dubious reporting on the 2020 election. Those companies are also suing OAN, which was dropped by DirecTV in April, as well as Fox News, where pre-trial information appears to indicate the outlet’s hosts and executives knew inflammatory information the station was reporting was false.

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Following Wednesday’s news, conservative viewers flocked to Twitter asking what Newsmax’s return to DirecTV means for OAN. A DirectTV spokesman said the company “moved on” from OAN and has no plans to bring back that station.

A San Diego judge ruled against OAN in January, after the network accused DirecTV of breach of contract when it decided not to renew their arrangement.