Newsmax CEO Chris Ruddy took to the floor of the NYSE to says the company’s momentum since going public has been “remarkable,” with major distribution deals, strong audience growth, and big plans for streaming and digital expansion.
Ruddy told NYSE Live that Newsmax’s strength is coming from across almost every business division of the company, in a live interview broadcast over the NYSE network.
“We’re seeing growth in almost every segment of the company,” he said.
“Cable TV, streaming, digital platform, print publications, Newsmax Plus service — everything’s up pretty much this year.”
Ruddy recalled the day Newsmax went public last spring as “a very memorable day.”
“It was such a high-energy day,” he recalled.
“We had all our friends and a lot of investors … the New York Stock Exchange is such a great institution, and we were now connected to that great institution in a very, very good way.”
Newsmax began trading on the NYSE under the ticker symbol ‘NMAX’ on March 31, 2025.
The listing followed a historic $75 million Regulation A+ IPO offering and pre-IPO raise of $225 million.
Newsmax was the first Regulation A+ company to go public directly on the Exchange’s Big Board.
Since that debut, the network has inked a string of major distribution agreements — including a multi-year deal with Hulu + Live TV, which now brings the Newsmax channel into roughly 60 million U.S. households.
“Sixty million’s the magic number,” Ruddy said.
“We’re on par with Fox and CNN as a top-tier cable channel in terms of reach. And our ratings have been fantastic … we’ve been number four in cable news, number five to ten overall in cable out of several hundred cable channels.”
In addition to the Hulu partnership, Newsmax has also signed a long-term carriage deal with Verizon Fios and struck a hotel distribution agreement that places the network in over 900 hotels and 300,000 rooms nationwide.
“We’re doing even better than last year in terms of overall results,” Ruddy said. “And I think it’s going to be very strong.”
Ruddy noted that typically the year after a presidential election is a “hangover” for media that see declines in engagement and revenues.
But Ruddy said Newsmax will see growth this year despite cyclical headwinds.
Ruddy added that the company sees three key areas of growth, beginning with its cable channel.
While the cable Pay TV system is contracting, news and live sports will continue to thrive, making the channel profitable for a long time.
At the same time Ruddy said the company is focused is seeing hyper-growth with its free streaming channel Newsmax2.
“The Newsmax 2 streaming channel has been growing double digits all this year,” Ruddy said.
“Viewership is way up, and we’re expecting that to continue to grow … it’s on every major platform — Roku, Samsung, Vizio, Pluto — we’re there.”
Ruddy said that while traditional cable remains a vital business, the future will hinge on digital and on-demand content.
“We think there’s a huge opportunity because streaming is growing,” he said.
He also pointed to Newsmax+, the company’s expanding subscription streaming platform, as a key area of focus.
Ruddy said this year Newsmax has been focused on adding significant content to its Plus service.
“We have documentaries, films … even movies, entertainment,” he said, adding, “So we do news and entertainment on Newsmax+.”
He noted that the company sees Newsmax+ as a family friendly news and entertainment channel, and no one is properly serving that market in the streaming services.
The NYSE Live host asked about the company’s growing corporate structure, with the addition of Fubo CEO David Gandler to the board of directors. Just this week Hulu announced its merger with Disney’s Hulu+ Pay TV had been completed.
“He’s a top-notch, world-class entrepreneur and business guy,” Ruddy said of Gandler.
“He started Fubo from nothing … he turned it into a public company, it’s been super successful.”
Ruddy emphasized he foresees strong growth with Newsmax’s Plus service, but also with Newsmax2, the streaming news channel.
“Cable is a great ecosystem and believe there’s a tremendous amount of opportunity in the cable world for us as a news channel,” he noted, adding, “Even as it contracts, it’ll be a very profitable marketplace, but we see streaming as the tremendous upside as we go forward.”
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