Trump Allies Explore Buyout of Conservative Channel Seeking to Compete With Fox News
Juliet Chung,, Corrie Driebusch, Rebecca Ballhaus
7 hrs ago

Allies of President Trump are pursuing an effort to acquire right-leaning news channel One America News Network, according to people familiar with the matter, in a bid to shake up a conservative media market that has been dominated by Fox News.
The investment firm Hicks Equity Partners is looking to acquire the channel and is pitching other wealthy GOP donors to arrange a bid of roughly $250 million for the channel’s parent company, the people said. The firm is owned by the family of Thomas Hicks Jr., co-chairman of the Republican National Committee and a close friend of Donald Trump Jr.
Get news and analysis on politics, policy, national security and more, delivered right to your inbox
The efforts come as Mr. Trump has repeatedly rebuked Fox News for being too critical—despite its opinion-show hosts’ general support of his administration—and has praised One America News Network. The channel’s opinion programming is known among its cable-news peers for its praise of Donald Trump and its advocacy for conservative causes.
“Over the last 25 years, we have been active media investors. Any interest in OANN is from a purely business standpoint,” said Rick Newman, a partner at Hicks Equity Partners who is leading the deal with family patriarch and Trump donor Thomas Hicks.
One America News Network President Charles Herring said in an email that the network has become “a reliable news source for a national audience,” adding that the company has seen interest from potential suitors from time to time. “With the 2020 political season in full swing, expressed interest is on the rise,” he wrote. “Yet our family didn’t build our operations to sell it.”
One America News Network draws a fraction of the viewers of the cable news industry’s titans—including ratings leader Fox News, MSNBC and CNN—and isn’t widely distributed to American households. Prospective investors have been told a new owner could increase One America News’s reach by striking carriage deals with additional pay-TV companies.
The Hicks firm would bring in new management, upgrade production values and offer coverage that caters to viewers whose political outlook is in the center and right-of-center, segments it views as underserved, the people familiar with the matter said.
Fox News parent Fox Corp. and Wall Street Journal parent News Corp share common ownership.
People close to Mr. Hicks Jr. said the RNC co-chair isn’t involved in efforts to buy OANN and had resigned his position as a partner at Hicks Holdings to avoid possible conflicts of interest after taking the RNC post. He and other family members could decide to opt into the deal, one of the people said. Another person said Mr. Hicks Jr. was unlikely to participate while he is an official at the RNC.
Mr. Hicks Jr. didn’t respond to requests to comment.
Hicks Equity Partners is a subsidiary of Hicks Holdings, the Dallas family office controlled by the elder Thomas Hicks that invests the wealth of the Hicks family. It is in talks with roughly a dozen wealthy Republican donors about the deal.
Doug Deason, a Dallas investor who has donated to the Trump campaign, said in an interview that he is planning to join the bid. Elliott Management Corp., the hedge fund run by Republican megadonor Paul Singer, was pitched but wasn’t interested, said people familiar with the matter.
The Hicks firm also plans to pitch Todd Ricketts, the RNC finance chairman, according to a person familiar with the matter. “The Ricketts have great respect for the Hicks family and always keep an open mind for good ideas,” said Brian Baker, a spokesman for the Ricketts family.
Part of the discussion among investors about buying the network has centered on the desire to strengthen the conservative voice in media coverage, which they feel offers far more options for liberal audiences, Mr. Deason said.
“The concern is that there’s only Fox. The left has so much more,” Mr. Deason said.
Some Republican donors say privately that Fox News isn’t doing enough to toe the party line, according to people familiar with the matter. They have noted, for instance, that the network doesn’t always carry the president’s full campaign rallies live on air, the people added.
A Fox News spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
One America News Network, also known as OANN, has served as a launchpad for prominent conservative commentators, such as current Fox Nation host Tomi Lahren.
Mr. Trump has favorably contrasted the smaller cable channel with Fox News.
Though the president routinely cites Fox News’s coverage and quotes its programs, he also has expressed some dissatisfaction with the network in recent months. “Only pro Trump Fox shows do well. Rest are nothing,” he tweeted in December.
Last year, before Fox News anchor Shepard Smith left the channel in August, he tweeted, “Watching Fake News CNN is better than watching Shepard Smith, the lowest rated show on @FoxNews. Actually, whenever possible, I turn to @OANN!”
In December, One America News worked with Mr. Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, on a series of interviews with current and former Ukrainian officials aimed at justifying Mr. Giuliani’s push for investigations in Ukraine that could benefit the president politically. The attempt to press Ukraine to launch those investigations helped set off the impeachment inquiry of the president the fall. The president has denied any wrongdoing.
Mr. Trump retweeted several posts by the network about the series and that month praised One America News for “doing incredible reporting.”
The Hicks family’s wealth stems from the senior Mr. Hicks’s co-founding of the now-defunct private-equity firm Hicks Muse Tate & Furst Inc., a leading media investor of the 1990s and 2000s. Its portfolio included hundreds of radio stations that made up what was then the largest radio broadcasting company in the country. Hicks Muse sold that company to Clear Channel Communications Inc, now known as iHeartMedia Inc.
Hicks Equity Partners hasn’t viewed the landscape for media deals as attractive in recent years, believing valuations were inflated and the industry was fully consolidated, said a person familiar with the firm’s views.
The family is also known for investing in sports teams. The family at one time owned teams including the English soccer club Liverpool, the Texas Rangers baseball team and the Dallas Stars hockey team.
Write to Corrie Driebusch at corrie.driebusch@wsj.com and Rebecca Ballhaus at Rebecca.Ballhaus@wsj.com
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/trump-allies-explore-buyout-of-conservative-channel-seeking-to-compete-with-fox-news/ar-BBYQf1V?li=BBnb7Kz&ocid=U453DHP
» There is no room for development by relying on the World Bank
» The House of Representatives holds a session on Tuesday to vote on the budget
» Southern Refineries employees warn of a plot to sell the company to the private sector
» Two sources: OPEC + is working on a new agreement that includes baselines and cuts
» A legal expert explains the extent of the powers of the Finance Committee and its procedures regardi
» Iraqi Foreign Ministry: We discussed in all our international meetings the suffering of the Syrian p
» The framework accuses three Western embassies of supporting homosexuality in Iraq
» Independent deputy for / Nina /: The budget will be approved within days, despite the Democratic Par
» Today's newspapers are following the budget and the government's measures to deal with water scarcit
» Independent deputy for / Nina /: The budget will be approved within days, despite the Democratic Par
» Parliamentarian: The undisclosed share of the region reaches 18%
» The "greed" of oil companies deepens Iraq's water and environmental wounds
» In the currency auction.. The Central Bank sells more than 225 million dollars
» The Central Bank: Efforts to accelerate the use of electronic payment and its dissemination
» A British report holds oil companies responsible for water scarcity in Iraq
» Iraq's oil exports to America decreased for the third week in a row
» Housing announces the provision of housing units for the middle classes
» Iraq's financial revenues from its oil exports decreased by 5% in a month
» Stability of dollar prices in Baghdad
» Iraq will not reduce its production, as the OPEC Plus coalition decided to reduce one million barrel
» Al-Araji discusses with Egyptian and Saudi officials common files and developments in the situation
» There are many appointments and the budget is absent.. Al-Mandalawi reveals a new date
» The Central Bank of Iraq expands electronic payment operations
» Integrity controls corruption worth 41 million dollars in Basra
» Representatives of the Kurdistan region are required to return 4 billion dinars to the public treasu
» Al-Sudanese political advisor: Iraq was the focal point of the Iranian-Saudi spending
» Transport discloses the revenues of ports and berths: We achieved 200 billion dinars
» The Iraqi-Saudi Coordinating Council.. A Path Toward Integration
» Justice: Procedures that limit the forgery of real estate
» 3 files between Iraq and Turkey in Erdogan's new mandate
» The breath of the Tigris and Euphrates suffocates with pollution
» The abundance of wheat pushes the Ministry of Commerce to open new marketing centers
» Expectations of a near breakthrough in the budget file
» Affordable housing units
» Fears of population growth: economic crises occur
» SOMO reveals the average price of oil exported to Jordan
» Experts call for offering {the path of development} to foreign investment
» Foreign Minister: Iraq used to be a corridor for drug traffic and is now consuming it
» Referred to American, European and Arab companies... delaying projects worth 41 million dollars in B
» They described it as "incapacitating" .. Iraqis criticize the mechanisms of a government bank to buy
» Stability of dollar exchange rates in Baghdad markets
» Iraq's oil exports to America decreased within a week
» The government: The "development path" dates back to the royal era... and its implementation began i
» Electricity loses 6 thousand megawatts due to the reduction of large quantities of Iranian gas
» The Minister of Commerce announces the results of the electronic update of the ration card in Najaf
» OPEC is discussing the next oil policy steps.. Will demand concerns drive a production cut?
» For today, Sunday.. the exchange rates of the dollar in the Iraqi markets
» It is expected that it will be for salaries only! .. Find out the latest developments in the budget
» The Central Bank talks about the generalization of the electronic payment project
» Deputy: The Kurds reject any amendments to the region's budget, and it is likely that they will be a
» Mr. Al-Hakim: A will to pass the budget and the development path project will align the interests of
» Governor of Basra: The Prime Minister personally supervises the file of gas investment and combating
» Finance announces the start of applying the unified treasury account during the current month
» "I have reached the point of litigation" .. Iraq is taking measures against Internet companies with
» Emaar: Requiring investors to sell housing units at "reasonable prices"
» Al-Sudani and the Italian Ambassador discuss the "Greater Iraq Project"
» Sudanese advisor expects to vote on the budget within less than 10 days
» The price of oil “threatens” the tripartite budget!
» Environment Minister Nizar Amidi announces the initiation of the electronic collection system (POS)
» Militia Man & Crew u-tube Big Weekend for Iraq - USA
» The New President Of The World Bank Takes Over
» Report: Al-Sudani is shackled, with no budget or government amendments on the horizon
» China resolves the Iraqi debate over the "Silk" and "Development" roads
» Prior to the 'OPEC' meeting.. the Saudi energy minister meets with his counterparts from the UAE, Ku
» Reuters: Iran is about to form a maritime alliance with Gulf countries to 'ensure regional stability
» Report: Al-Sudani is shackled, with no budget or government amendments on the horizon
» Iraq boosts its reserves of "precious metal"
» Western oil companies are making billions from southern Iraq and throwing pollution and drought on i
» Communications reveal a new policy for the work of Internet companies in Iraq
» Criticism of Al-Rafidain housing loans, describing them as "incapacitating"
» Parliamentary Finance explains to {Euphrates News} the fact that the budget has lost its economic fe
» Sudanese advisor determines the proportion of public expenditures of the gross domestic product
» For more than 8,000 borrowers, Al-Rafidain Bank releases returns
» Investment marks 60 lagging projects and withdraws more than a hundred investment licenses in Salah
» It includes Iraq and Saudi Arabia.. Iran announces the imminent formation of a military coalition wi
» Parliamentary oil accuses Erbil of smuggling oil through fictitious companies
» Al-Fateh: The Kurds' demands for the budget are "illogical"
» Rights: Al-Halbousi's dismissal is inevitable
» Calls for events rejecting the interventions of the American ambassador in Iraq
» The Minister of Health directs the preparation of a plan to estimate the needs for medicines and med
» Deputy for Dhi Qar: We will not vote on the budget without conditions
» Parliamentary Oil and Gas Committee: Erbil circumvents Baghdad's decisions to change the names of oi
» Iraq and Kuwait are discussing the work of the technical and legal committee concerned with the dema
» Legal expert: Investment projects should focus on the housing crisis according to a constitutional a
» Trade: Opening new marketing centers to absorb the marketed quantities of wheat
» Economist for / NINA /: The delay in approving the budget will cause a delay in the completion of im
» Deputy: Two disagreements impede the approval of the budget
» Paying dues for Iranian gas exports causes a problem with America and threatens Iraq's electricity p
» Politician: Iraq has its own cards to obtain its water rights
» Preferring a date for approving the budget law
» An economist reveals the huge losses in Iraqi oil revenues during the current year
» Al-Sudani's advisor reveals the importance of the electronic payment experience: it reduces transact
» The North Company reveals the destinations of Kirkuk oil after stopping its export to Turkey
» The Arab Monetary Fund expects moderate growth for the Iraqi economy in 2023
» For less than 12 dollars... Iraq reveals the average price of oil exported to Jordan
» The Central Bank of Iraq sells more than one billion and 270 million dollars within a week
» Parliamentary Finance expects to settle the budget differences between Baghdad and Erbil through "mi
» Sudanese advisor: IMF experts report "very pessimistic"