Newsmax, a right-wing cable news channel, sued cable news behemoth Fox News and parent company Fox Corp. in federal court on Wednesday, alleging Fox News violated multiple antitrust statutes to stifle competition in the conservative news market.
The 31-page complaint, filed in the Southern District of Florida, alleges Fox “engaged in an exclusionary scheme to increase and maintain its dominance in the market for U.S. right-leaning pay TV news, resulting in suppression of competition in that market.”
Newsmax is being represented by law firms Kellogg, Hansen, Todd, Figel & Frederick, P.L.L.C., and Sperling Kenny Nachwalter, LLC. It is seeking a jury trial and damages under the Sherman Act, the Florida Antitrust Act, and the Florida Deceptive & Unfair Trade Practices Act.
“Fox may have profited from exclusionary contracts and intimidation tactics for years, but those days are over,” Newsmax CEO Christopher Ruddy said in a statement.
A Fox Corp. spokesperson referred TheWrap to Fox News for comment. A Fox News spokesperson said in a statement: “Newsmax cannot sue their way out of their own competitive failures in the marketplace to chase headlines simply because they can’t attract viewers.”
In a brief interview, Ruddy disputed Fox News’ characterization of its efforts and said its audience had increased by more than 50% during 2025’s first quarter compared to the same period last year.
“We’re very happy with our growth rate,” he said. “It would be even larger and more significant had Fox not engaged in illegal activities targeting Newsmax.”
Newsmax launched its pay-TV network in 2014. While larger competitiors like Fox News, CNN and MSNBC still dwarf its ratings, it still ranked far ahead of competitior NewsNation in primetime during 2025’s second quarter.
Still, it has seen a rockier 2025. Newsmax settled last month a $1.6 billion lawsuit brought by Dominion Voting Systems for $67 million over the network’s false claims that Dominion helped rig the 2020 election. It followed a $40 million settlement with Smartmatic, another voting systems company, in 2024.
In the complaint, Newsmax alleges that Fox News exploited its status as a “must-have” news network during its negotiations with cable, satellite and streaming TV providers to restrict or completely deny access to right-wing competitors. It claims that Fox forces carriers to carry its lesser-watched channels, such as Fox Business and Fox Sports 2, in their basic packages if they include competitors like Newsmax and One America News Network, thereby inflicting “financial penalties” on them.
“Fox at times refuses to license its indispensable sports, news, and entertainment channels unless the distributor either excludes rival right-leaning news networks entirely, restricts their distribution by placing them in little-watched tiers, or otherwise agrees to put them at a competitive disadvantage,” it claimed.
Newsmax also pointed to internal Fox News communications that it said reflected the highly rated network’s fear of its smaller competitor, referencing comments made by Fox News President Jay Wallace, former host Tucker Carlson and former Fox Corp. executive Raj Shah in the wake of the 2020 election and a surge in Newsmax’s ratings.
“Our concern is Newsmax and One America News Network,” Shah wrote in November 2020.
It also said Fox News has hired “private detective firms to investigate Newsmax executives” and pressured guests to not appear on Newsmax’s networks.
Newsmax also claimed Fox’s practices were ongoing, one that would continue “each time Fox enforces or extends its exclusionary terms or abuses its monopoly power” when it negotiates with TV carriers.