Fox Corp. Chief Executive Officer Lachlan Murdoch acknowledged a steep decline in Fox News viewership ahead of the midterm elections and attributed it to "viewer fatigue." The network saw a 28% drop in prime-time viewing, to an average of 2 million evening viewers from Sept. 28 to Oct. 25, according to Nielsen data.
Murdoch said the comparison is unfavorable because Fox drew strong audiences last year with coverage of massive floods and the assassination of right-wing political activist Charlie Kirk. He noted a similar pattern during the 2006 midterms, which also fell during a president's second term, that of George W. Bush. "Those viewers are not going to any other channel," Murdoch said. "They're not switching to CNN or MS NOW. They're just fatigued and watching slightly less television overall."
Rival networks gained ground. Versant Media Group's MS NOW rose 15% to 1.16 million viewers, while Skydance Corp.'s CNN averaged 644,000 viewers, a 16% increase. Some media observers link the decline to President Donald Trump's slipping approval ratings, suggesting disengagement from Fox's traditional Republican audience.
Fox reported fiscal first-quarter revenue of $4.57 billion, above Wall Street's estimates of $4.31 billion. Adjusted EBITDA was $1.64 billion, beating analysts' expectations of $1.37 billion. The network also reported record midterm political advertising of more than $350 million, and total ad revenue jumped 47% to $2.08 billion, largely from broadcasting the men's FIFA World Cup. Murdoch said Fox is interested in pursuing U.S. media rights for the 2030 and 2034 tournaments, which could fetch as much as $4 billion.
Source: Bloomberg Markets · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing