Roku, DirecTV drop Russian-backed RT channel

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

After initially dropping the Russia-backed news channel in Europe, it is now dropping the channel from its US market.

The carriage change was confirmed by the company. The company had earlier confirmed the channel was being pulled from its European market.

The decision from the streamer is similar to the one from DirecTV. The company will no longer offer programming immediately because of the contract expiration date, according to Nicholas.

The crisis in Ukranian caused DirecTV to move the timing up on whether to keep the channel on its service. The provider was dropping the channel.

The channel was carried by two of the largest providers in the US. When contacted on Tuesday about whether or not it would drop the channel, a spokeswoman for the company said that they were thinking about the people of Ukraine and their team members in the country. We are keeping a close eye on the situation.

A number of major content distributors are taking a stance against Russian-backed media. After being told last year that it would have to add a number of state-run propaganda channels to its service, the company said Monday that it had no plans to do so. Sputnik has been blocked by YouTube in Europe.