Right-wing cable news outlet Newsmax sued conservative media giant Fox Corp. on Wednesday, alleging that the Murdoch family-controlled conglomerate holds an illegal monopoly in the “right-leaning pay TV news market.”
In the antitrust lawsuit, filed in a Florida federal court, Newsmax accuses Fox Corp. and its Fox News network of engaging in an “exclusionary scheme to increase and maintain its dominance” in that market.
Newsmax alleges in the court papers that if not for Fox’s “anticompetitive behavior,” the rival cable news outlet would have “achieved greater pay TV distribution and grown into a more “valuable” media company.
Earlier this year, Newsmax — which was founded in 1998 — went public and has a market capitalization of $1.8 billion, while Fox Corp. has a market capitalization of more than $25 billion.
The lawsuit alleges that Fox pressures…
