 Logo as of 2021 | |
| Country | United States |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Nationwide |
| Programming | |
| Language(s) | English |
| Picture format | 1080iHDTV (downscaled towidescreen480i forSDTVs) |
| Ownership | |
| Owner | Newsmax |
| Key people |
|
| History | |
| Launched | June 16, 2014; 10 years ago (2014-06-16) |
| Links | |
| Website | www |
| Availability | |
| Streaming media | |
| Service(s) | FuboTV,Pluto TV,Sling TV,Xumo,YouTube,Vidgo |
Newsmax TV is an Americantelevision channel owned byNewsmax described asconservative,right-wing,[6] andfar-right.[18] The network primarily focuses on political opinion-based talk shows. It carries a news/talk format throughout the day and night, with documentaries and films on weekends.
The channel was created by American journalist and Newsmax CEOChristopher Ruddy. It launched on June 16, 2014, to 35 million satellite subscribers throughDirecTV andDish Network.[19] As of May 2019, the network reaches about 75 million cable homes and has widestreaming anddigital media player/mobile device availability.[20] The channel primarily broadcasts from Newsmax's studio onManhattan's East Side inNew York City, with headquarters inBoca Raton, Florida andWashington, D.C.[21][22][better source needed]
CEOChristopher Ruddy has compared the network toFox News. In August 2020,The Washington Post described Newsmax as "a landing spot for cable news personalities in need of a new home", citing the network's hiring ofMark Halperin andBill O'Reilly following their resignations from other networks due to allegations ofsexual harassment.[23] Similarly, Newsmax has hired many former Fox News program hosts, includingGreg Kelly,Rob Schmitt,Bob Sellers, andHeather Childers.[24][25]
In May 2014, U.S. news organizationNewsmax announced that it had signed a distribution deal with DirecTV and would launch a national television news channel to compete directly with CNN, Fox News, and other American news networks. It was launched to provide independent news; its founder, Chris Ruddy described it as intended to be a "kinder, gentler Fox News," saying that "Our goal is to be a little moreboomer-oriented, more information-based rather than being vituperative and polarizing."[25]
Around the time of the channel launch, Businessweek Bloomberg profiled Ruddy and Newsmax in a feature story entitled "The NextAiles: Newsmax's Chris Ruddy Preps TV Rival to Fox News.[26] Businessweek Bloomberg reported that Newsmax planned to build off its success as a digital media player to challenge Fox News in the traditional cable arena while developing a stake in the emerging streaming OTT business.
A Fast Company report in December 2020 suggested Newsmax was on a course to "dethrone" Fox with its streaming digital strategy by offering the channel for free to platforms like Roku, YouTube, Pluto TV, Xumo, Samsung TV Plus and others. "You wouldn't know it by looking at cable TV ratings, but Fox News has a problem on its hands," Fast Company wrote, noting that "When you factor in Newsmax's streaming audience, the race between the two right-wing news networks is closer than you might think."[27]
On January 16, 2016,Dennis Michael Lynch: Unfiltered debuted on the channel.[citation needed] The program ended after the first segment of the August 10, 2016, episode after Lynch announced that he would resign from the network and made comments defendingFox News Channel and criticizing his network for its reporting of theTrump campaign and suggesting they were restricting his editorial control; he was escorted out from the network'sNew York studio during what would have been the first commercial break.[28][29] It was replaced the next Monday with an hour-long video simulcast of radio'sThe Howie Carr Show fromWRKO inBoston.[30]
Beginning in 2020, the network significantly ramped up programming, adding evening shows with Greg Kelly, a former Fox News and local affiliate host, and Grant Stinchfield, a former NBC local correspondent and ex-NRA TV host.[31] The network launchedSpicer & Co. on March 3, 2020, featuring former TrumpWhite House Press SecretarySean Spicer and co-hostLyndsay Keith,[32][33] Historically, the network started out with a documentary-heavy lineup, but as of 2022, replays of daily and weekend shows make up the bulk of the network's late night programming, like most news channels.
During the2020 United States presidential election, then-President Trump began to promote Newsmax over rival competitorFox News.[21][34][35] Trump's preference for Newsmax over Fox News became clearer after the latter became the first news outlet to callArizona for Democratic challengerJoe Biden.[36] Newsmax has made their more conservative leanings a selling point to disaffected Fox News viewers, as well as employing Fox News alumni to join their lineup on Newsmax TV, such asRob Schmitt andGreg Kelly.[36][37][38]
After the election was won by DemocratJoe Biden, Newsmax struck a defiant tone, focusing onconspiracy theories and allegations of voter fraud as a way to attractFox News viewers angered by what they saw as insufficient loyalty to Trump.[39][40][41] Emily VanDerWerff ofVox reported that the outlet did not "go full arch-conservative" and "doesn't give airtime to QAnon paranoiacs", but that it "spent lots of time arguing that other media outlets jumped the gun in calling the election for Biden and that Trump still has a path to win this thing."[42] Newsmax was thus positioned further to the right of Fox but less so thanOne America News Network, another conservative news channel that embraced afar-right editorial stance during and after the Trump administration.[43]
CNN'sBrian Stelter, in an on-air interview, asked Newsmax CEOChristopher Ruddy why the network chose to air "election denialism" and "bogus voter fraud stuff," to which Ruddy replied that the network featured all points of view and argued that all of the other major news outlets who had reported Biden's election win were "rushing."[44]
Since the election, Newsmax has seen increasing viewership; according to Nielsen, Newsmax averaged 182,000 viewers in the week leading up to the election. In the week that followed, the average increased further with daily averages around 400,000 viewers, withGreg Kelly Reports andSpicer & Co. having attracted numbers in the 700,000–800,000 range.[45] On December 7, 2020,Greg Kelly Reports beat its timeslot competitor on Fox News,The Story with Martha MacCallum, in averagekey demographic viewership for the first time (229,000 to 203,000), while Stelter observed that overall the program "has nearly a million viewers on a good night".[46]
A small number of cable providers, includingBreezeline (formerly Atlantic Broadband), dropped the channel in January 2022. The company stated that the decision was not based on the network's content, but because of Newsmax wanting to move to more traditionalretransmission consent arrangements where providers pay to carry the network (rather than Newsmax paying providers to carry the channel), while simultaneously being available at no charge viaYouTube andfree ad-supported streaming television (FAST) platforms.[43] Newsmax planned to discontinue its free online streams by the end of 2023.[47]
As of October 2022, Newsmax was in a distant fourth place among the cable news channels, behind Fox News, CNN and MSNBC but ahead ofNewsNation.[48]
On January 25, 2023, Newsmax TV was removed from the satellite and streaming versions of DirecTV and U-verse after their carriage agreement expired; the network sought to convert from paying DirecTV for carriage to a retransmission consent arrangement.[49] DirecTV subsequently replaced Newsmax TV with the competing conservative networkThe First TV.[50] While DirecTV isn't required by law to carry cable news channels with differing political agendas, this particular carriage dispute invoked stroke rebukes from conservative lawmakers like Florida governorRon DeSantis, who characterised the dispute as "censorship."[51] DirecTV and Newsmax settled their dispute on March 22, 2023.[52]
Newsmax's retransmission consent agreement with DirecTV and others required it to wind down the free streaming simulcast of its cable news channel, which it did on November 1, 2023. In its place onfree ad-supported streaming television providers, Newsmax launched "Newsmax2," which includes headline rundowns and shorter 'best-of' clips of Newsmax programming. Newsmax+ was then launched as a paid monthly subscription service, carrying the traditional feed now exclusive to paid television providers.[53]
Weekdays[54]
Weekends
Before the DirecTV dispute and the network added more live news hours outside of overnights, Newsmax TV historically made its feed available to free-to-air terrestrial television affiliates. Currently, only a county-owned translator network inMillard County, Utah, along withAlexandria, Minnesota's Selective TV system continue to carry the main channel over-the-air.
The terms for DirecTV's new carriage deal for Newsmax TV required the network's remaining over-the-air affiliations and free online availability (outside some exceptions) to be withdrawn as of November 1, 2023, when that access ended and was replaced by a monthly subscription platform, Newsmax+, orTV Everywhere authentication with a paid television provider. Online providers and over-the-air stations began to carry a secondary channel, Newsmax2, featuring taped 'best-of' content with some simulcasting of the main channel's live schedule.
Stylistically, RT presenters on US politics have more in common with presenters from right-wing US Fox News or NewsMax than CNN or the BBC...
After a little more than a year on the job, Michael Clemente is out as CEO of Newsmax TV, a right-wing outlet frequently in step with President Donald Trump.
Instead, you would've had to turn to Newsmax, the right-wing cable news channel that's sticking to its old-school strategy of being the Trumpiest channel on TV.
We first analyze Trump's tweets during his presidency (January 2017–January 2021) mentioning three far-right outlets (One America News Network, Newsmax, and Breitbart), conceptualizing these messages as authority signals that symbolically lend legitimacy to the media sources. [...] To capture appearances in our two video-based sources (OANN and Newsmax), we turned to their YouTube channels, as we were unable to find transcripts of their broadcasts for the entire Trump presidency.
Consistent with these scientific studies, a May 2021 survey by the Public Religion Research Institute found that consumption of far-right television sources Newsmax and One America News Network, followed by Fox News, was more highly associated with holding core beliefs of the QAnon conspiracy theorists than was true of people who did not rely on television news.
Also, a government cybersecurity official in charge of safeguarding the integrity of the presidential election sued the Trump Campaign, one of its lawyers and far-right media outlet Newsmax for libel, claiming they conspired to falsely assert widespread election fraud. [...] One Trump campaign lawyer said on far-right cable channel Newsmax: "He should be drawn and quartered. Taken out and shot."
It needs to be noted that on April 30, 2021, Newsmax (the far right wing news alternative to FOX News) apologized for airing false allegations that Dominion Voting Systems manipulated machines or tallies on Election Day to the detriment of Donald Trump.
Gaetz found a lifeboat in Newsmax, the far-right cable station...
