Conspiracy Channel OAN Tries To Survive Using Over The Air Antennas

When last we checked in with One America News (OAN), it was trying (with the help of numerous Republican AGs) to pretend that DirecTV's decision to boot the barely watched conspiracy network from its cable lineup was part of a vast, diabolical cabal to censor conservatives (it wasn't). It then decided to attack Verizon, right before that cable provider kicked it to the curb as well.

That has left the conspiracy theory peddling network to try and survive amidst a crowded market of right-wing propaganda mills that flood the zone with endless gibberish and victimization porn. But OAN is also apparently hoping to leverage old TV antennas and over the air broadcasts to keep its reach alive:

OAN is signing up partners to broadcast on so-called subchannels." OAN airs on free, over-the-air channels in about 30 markets and plans to be in about 100 by the end of this year, according to a person familiar with the company's strategy who asked not to be identified because the plans aren't public. The markets include Pittsburgh; Las Vegas; Wichita, Kansas; Jacksonville, Florida; and Birmingham, Alabama.

A government mandated shift to digital broadcasting freed up airwaves for TV station owners to create multiple additional new channels. These subchannels" are predominantly filled with reruns of old sitcoms and gameshows. Now, viewers will get to enjoy unhinged election conspiracies, race-baiting disinformation, and programming that undermines public health messaging.

While not insubstantial, the channel's range will remain constrained. Only about 15% of US households still use over the air antennas, and while that's up from 10% in 2010, it's still a tiny fraction of the already small reach the far right wing propaganda outlet saw on traditional cable.

Despite making a lot of headlines for its batshit claims (like the idea COVID was crafted in a North Carolina lab), the news channel never really saw all that many actual viewers. One estimate pegged daily viewership at around 14,000 a few years ago, and that was before the channel got kicked off of DirecTV and Verizon, its biggest distributors.