Sign on the fundamental entrance to the FOX News Headquarters at NewsCorp Building in Manhattan.
Erik Mcgregor | Lightrocket | Getty Images
Newsmax filed a lawsuit Wednesday accusing conservative media large Fox News of appearing as a monopoly and suppressing its right-leaning opponents.
“Fox has sought to protect and expand its monopoly power in the Right-leaning Pay TV News Market by engaging in a suite of anticompetitive behaviors,” attorneys for the outlet wrote within the federal go well with in southern Florida.
“But for Fox’s anticompetitive behavior, Newsmax would have achieved greater pay TV distribution, seen its audience and ratings grow sooner, gained earlier ‘critical mass’ for major advertisers and become, overall, a more valuable media property,” they alleged.
Christopher Ruddy, CEO of Newsmax Inc., speaks throughout an interview about his firm’s IPO, which occurred earlier within the week, on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., April 3, 2025.
Brendan McDermid | Reuters
A Fox News spokesperson curtly replied, “Newsmax cannot sue their way out of their own competitive failures in the marketplace to chase headlines simply because they can’t attract viewers.”
The go well with alleges that Fox, which has lengthy been the most-watched cable information community on tv, makes use of a number of methods to “coerce distributors into not carrying or into marginalizing other right-leaning news channels.”
Fox both explicitly or tacitly makes entry to its content material conditional on distributors agreeing to not carry these channels, the go well with alleges.
If they do, Fox imposes monetary penalties on these distributors, by requiring them “to carry and pay high fees for Fox’s little-watched channels like Fox Business,” based on Newsmax.
Fox additionally allegedly “inserts a suite of other contractual barriers into its carriage agreements intended to prevent Newsmax and others from competing.”
“These tactics constitute unlawful restraints of trade and flow directly from Fox’s unlawful monopolization of the Right-leaning Pay TV News Market,” the go well with alleges.
“Fox’s longstanding and ongoing practices have harmed and will further harm, competition and consumers in the United States.”
Newsmax desires a choose to difficulty a everlasting injunction barring Fox’s allegedly exclusionary agreements.
It additionally seeks a judgment for 3 times the quantity of damages that it has allegedly sustained by Fox, in addition to pre- and post-judgment curiosity “at the highest legal rate.”
This is breaking information. Please refresh for updates.
— CNBC’s Lillian Rizzo contributed to this report.