Sign at the main entrance to the FOX News Headquarters at NewsCorp Building in Manhattan.
Erik Mcgregor | Lightrocket | Getty Images
Newsmax filed a lawsuit Wednesday accusing conservative media giant Fox News of suppressing its right-leaning competitors.
“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,” attorneys for the outlet wrote in the federal suit in southern Florida.
Christopher Ruddy, CEO of Newsmax Inc., speaks during an interview about his company’s IPO, which happened earlier in the week, at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., April 3, 2025.
Brendan McDermid | Reuters
A spokeswoman for Fox did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.
Newsmax’s suit alleges that Fox, which has long been the most-watched cable news network on television, uses multiple strategies to “coerce distributors into not carrying or into marginalizing other right-leaning news channels.”
Fox either explicitly or tacitly makes access to its content conditional on distributors agreeing not to carry those channels, the suit alleges.
If they do, Fox imposes financial penalties on those distributors, by requiring them “to carry and pay high fees for Fox’s little-watched channels like Fox Business,” according to Newsmax.
Fox also 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 suit alleges.
“Fox’s longstanding and ongoing practices have harmed and will further harm, competition and consumers in the United States.”
Newsmax wants a judge to issue a permanent injunction barring Fox’s allegedly exclusionary agreements.
It also seeks a judgment for three times the amount of damages that it has allegedly sustained by Fox, as well as pre- and post-judgment interest “at the highest legal rate.”
This is breaking news. Please refresh for updates.
— CNBC’s Lillian Rizzo contributed to this report.
