Court Rejects Most of OAN Claims in DirecTV Lawsuit

The Superior Court of California in San Diego County granted most of DirecTV's motion to strike Herring Network's complaint over Herring's One America News being dropped from the MVPD, per an order last week (docket 37-2022-00008623) by Judge John Meyer. Surviving is a breach of contract claim on DirecTV disclosing the expiration date of the affiliation agreement when it told news media about OAN being dropped. Meyer said DirecTV's decision about what channels to carry "is conduct in furtherance of its constitutional right of free speech in connection with issues of public interest." He said nothing in the confidentially agreement between the two covers agreements that the parties may or may not enter in the future. He overruled a demurrer by DirecTV about the surviving claim, saying Herring could be entitled to "nominal damages" for the breach of the confidentiality provision agreement. “We are grateful that the Court has ruled in One America News’ favor by allowing our Breach of Contract claim to proceed against DirecTV in earnest," Herring outside counsel Eric Early of Early Sullivan emailed us Tuesday.