On Wednesday, activists gathered in front of Comcast headquarters in Philadelphia to deliver a petition with over 165,000 signatures in opposition to Fox News’ attempts to renegotiate their carriage fees with cable providers. 

“Our activists made it clear: we will not allow Fox to evade accountability for their extremism and attacks on democracy on our dime,” said Raelyn Roberson, media and democracy campaigner at Common Cause. “Cable customers and defenders of democracy are organized, enthusiastic, and fed up with Fox News’s pattern of ducking the consequences of its actions.” 

Historically, Fox News has relied on carriage fees paid by cable customers to make up for revenue lost from a drop in advertisers, legal fees, and the firing of their primetime host, Tucker Carlson. Carriage fees make up over 70% of Fox News’ revenue.

Every cable customer pays more than $2 a month to Fox News. Cable customers cannot opt out of paying for Fox News, even if they do not watch the channel. Wednesday’s activists showed that they are determined to put a stop to this practice. 

The small but mighty crowd as well as passersby on the busy street stopped and listened to speeches delivered by Roberson as well as Philip Hensley-Robin, executive director of Common Cause Pennsylvania, Julie Millican, vice president at Media Matters, and Suzanne Almeida, director of State Operations at Common Cause.

More information on Common Cause’s #NoFoxFee campaign is available here. The crowd on Wednesday was gathered through Common Cause’s Digital Democracy Activists program. More information on our Digital Democracy Activists is available here. 

Photos courtesy of Getty photographer Lisa Lake