Obscure Right Wing TV News Network Gets Ready for Its Close-Up
By J. Max Robins, February 6, 2023
What do Bill O’Reilly, Dana Loesch, Liz Wheeler and Jesse Kelly have in common aside from Joe Biden dartboards and collective hate for anyone else who leans even slightly left of center? The answer: They all have shows on The First, a little-watched right wing opinion and commentary site for past-their-primetime-pundits. Launched in October 2019 on streamer Pluto TV, The First has been a kind of witness protection program channel for a murderer’s row of talking heads, including some whose once high-flying careers were grounded by scandal.
Recently, however, The First’s fortunes brightened, and further rightened: Late last month, DirecTV announced it would carry the conservative network, making it available to its more than 13 million subscribers.
A Substitute for Those Other Guys
The decision by the satellite carrier had nothing to do with the fledgling network drawing buzz for its format of conservative talk radio on TV, and everything to do with politics and the bottom line. Before striking a deal to pick up The First, DirecTV and its corporate overlords AT&T and TPG Capital were taking fire from Washington politicos for dumping the much more established right wing Newsmax, as well as deplatforming ultra-right One America News (OAN) last April.
Wisely, The First saw opportunity in the misfortunes of its two competitors. All three were vying for the same audience – right wing viewers hungry for an alternative to Fox News. Who cares if it was being used as a public relations tool by DirecTV?
Certainly not The First’s CEO Christopher Balfe, a veteran of upstart right wing chat networks. He was part of the leadership that launched The Blaze, the digital net built around Glenn Beck after the controversial commentator got too looney-right even for Fox News. Balfe is also a partner in the boutique media consultancy Red Seat Ventures that controls The First, aka First TV (clumsily stylized as F1rst TV because…marketing) and whose client list includes such right marquee names as Megyn Kelly, Bari Weiss and Nancy Grace. (Also of note: Balfe’s brother, Kevin Balfe, another partner in Red Seat Ventures, co-wrote several books with Glenn Beck, including Arguing with Idiots: How to Stop Small Minds and Big Government.”
The Deal Makes Dollars and Sense
“DirecTV clearly recognizes the importance of offering a wide array of views and perspectives to their customers across the U.S., and we’re thrilled The First is now among them since we reach conservatives who aren’t beholden to any one party’s talking points,” said Balfe in a statement announcing the deal (TheRighting reached to Balfe to comment on this article and he didn’t respond). “We give rise to voices who are passionate about American values yet too often ignored, and now have a unique opportunity to broaden our reach without saddling DirecTV and its customers with any added financial demands.”
Note the key phrase “added financial demands.” The bottom line truth is that what happened with DirecTV and Newmax was a classic distributor vs. network battle: Newsmax demanded millions of dollars in carriage fees from the satellite network, which had been carrying Newsmax free of charge (though it could sell air time to advertisers). Basically, the network’s ratings were miniscule and Newsmax wanted too much, so DirecTV bosses said no to pay and go away.
However, Newsmax’s well-connected, Washington savvy CEO Chris Ruddy rallied friendly GOP politicos to his side, claiming DirecTV had given his network the boot to silence voices from the right. Quickly, a chorus of Republican legislators threatened action. Reports surfaced that Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.), ranking member of the Senate Commerce Committee; Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee; Mike Lee (R-Utah); and Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) wrote the CEOs of DirecTV and parents AT&T and TPG Capital, “demanding” answers about why Newsmax was kicked to the curb. Ruddy amplified the charge of liberal bias, noting that the low-rated left-leaning Vice network remained on DirecTV.
A Bright Future for the Upstart?
Needless to say, Ruddy and his GOP amen chorus failed to bring up DirecTV’s financial interest in Vice, which makes it less of a bottom line burden. Nor do they note that Newsmax is available free on its website as well via YouTube and Roku. Also bolstering the argument that this had much more to do with cash than politics was that, in 2021, the satellite carrier dumped the business channel Bloomberg TV after 25 years as a cost-cutting measure. (BTW: Fox News’ talking heads – who normally love nothing better than to claim liberal bias by big media behemoths – have said nary a word about the DirecTV/Newsmax contretemps.)
Ruddy’s noisy protests about liberal bias didn’t do much for Newsmax, but it did give a major opening to The First, a network that presents a lineup every bit as mission-aligned with GOP talking points as Newsmax. Now, with a perch on DirecTV, Balfe has much more of a drawing card to lure other big right wing names to The First, maybe some of whom won’t be O.G. talkers.
If bringing on The First is enough to defang Republican legislator protests, other providers, such as big cable companies, may be happy to say goodbye to paying Newsmax carriage fees and instead take Balfe’s upstart talk channel free of charge. Then millions more viewers may know who’s on The First.
J. Max Robins (@jmaxrobins) is executive director of the Center for Communication. The former editor-in-chief of Broadcasting & Cable, he has contributed to publications, including the Wall Street Journal, Columbia Journalism Review and Forbes.
Interested in more news about right-wing websites curated especially for mainstream audiences? Subscribe to our free daily newsletter.
Since its launch four years ago, The First has been a kind of witness protection program channel for a murderer’s row of talking heads, including some whose once high-flying careers were grounded by scandal. Recently, however, The First’s fortunes brightened, and further rightened. (Image: Pixabay)
