Newsmax Sues Fox, Alleging Right-Leaning Pay-TV News Monopoly

If not for Fox Corp.'s anticompetitive maneuvers against other right-leaning pay-TV news operations, Newsmax would have greater pay-TV distribution, and its audience and ratings would have grown more quickly, the network asserted in a federal lawsuit Wednesday.

In its complaint filed with the U.S. District Court for Southern Florida (docket 9:25-cv-81091), Newsmax said Fox uses explicit or tacit "no-carry" provisions, making MVPDs agree not to carry right-leaning news channels other than Fox News, and it puts contractual barriers into its carriage agreements. Those restraints of trade have stunted Newsmax's growth, resulting in missed ad and marketing revenues and lower cable license fees, it said. Newsmax "is far from the only victim [as Fox's] anticompetitive conduct impedes competition in the entire Right-leaning Pay TV News Market."

The suit was brought under the federal Sherman Act and the Florida Antitrust Act and seeks unspecified monetary damages, as well as a permanent injunction prohibiting Fox’s exclusionary agreements. Fox didn't comment.