As Fox News Ranks Second in All of Television, Lachlan Murdoch Says Other Cable Channels No Longer The Competition

Stephanie Keith/Getty Images

Fox Corporation’s CEO and Executive Chairman, Lachlan Murdoch, told investors during a conference call on Thursday that Fox News’ “competition, actually, is the broadcast networks, not a cable channel or a news channel.”

In a conversation with Morgan Stanley analyst Ben Swinburne, Murdoch explained his rationale for declaring that Fox News’ performance has put the network in a league above its cable news competition.

“Competition makes you better, but we’re not competing anymore with other news channels. We’re really competing with the broadcast networks,” Murdoch began, after Swinburne noted that Fox News is “one of the most attractive return on capital businesses I think that we’ve seen in media” and added, “Usually that brings in competition and there is competition for Fox News.”

“Fox News turned 25 years old this year. It’s gone by relatively quickly in a series of huge news cycles,” Murdoch continued. “The last 20 years of those 25 years, we’ve been the number one news channel in America. The last six years we’ve been the number one cable channel of any cable channel, including entertainment, sports, and documentaries.”

Lachlan Murdoch, the eldest son of News Corp. founder Rupert Mordoch, became Fox Corp.s’ chairman and CEO in March of 2019 when it became a stand-alone company.

Murdoch offered President Joe Biden’s State of the Union as an example of Fox’s recent dominance in competing with the broadcast networks.

“I think actually in the State of the Union it seems like months ago, but a week ago, State of the Union 7.2 million people watched State of the Union on Fox News. The next highest-rated channel was ABC with 6 million people. So increasingly our competition actually is the broadcast networks, not a cable channel or a news channel.”

Later in the conference call, Swinburne turned the conversation to Fox’s advertisers, noting “historically, there have been advertisers or groups of advertisers that have been reluctant to appear on Fox the network.”

“Are you still facing those challenges?” Swinburne asked.

Murdoch responded by saying “our audience is under-monetizing,” but went on to argue Fox’s position “remains very, very strong” adding “we now represent middle America in a way that we know we have more Democrats and Independents watching Fox News than watch MSNBC or CNN.”

Recent ratings data from cable news illustrates Murdoch’s argument. While CNN has seen some of its audience come back since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Fox News remains dominant.

In the two weeks since the conflict began on February 24th, Fox has averaged 2.21 million day time viewers, while CNN has averaged 1.22 million and MSNBC has averaged 953,000 viewers during the day.

In prime time, Fox News has widened the gap further bringing in an average of 3.42 million total viewers, while CNN and MSNBC have pulled in 1.76 million and 1.57 million – respectively.

During the same period, discounting weekends, Fox averaged 3.88 million average prime time viewers putting it second place in all of television, behind CBS’s 5.09 million prime time viewers. That means Fox’s prime time lineup beat NBC’s 3.6 million viewers, ABC’s 3.55 million viewers and Fox’s 2.26 million viewers.

As broadcast networks, CBS, NBC, and ABC are more easily accessible in more homes than cable stations, which require viewers to purchase them.

CNN and MSNBC averaged 1.87 and 1.95 million viewers, respectively, across prime time during that same period, discounting the weekends.

Have a tip we should know? tips@mediaite.com