Fox chief executive officer Lachlan Murdoch acknowledged a steep decline in viewership on Fox News ahead of midterm elections and attributed it to “viewer fatigue.”
The cable news network had seen similar trends during the 2006 midterms, which also fell during a president’s second term — George W. Bush’s, Murdoch said on a call with analysts on Monday (US time) to discuss financial results.
Fox News notched strong viewership last year because of coverage on events like massive floods and the assassination of right-wing political activist Charlie Kirk, which could account for the unfavorable comparison this year, Murdoch said.
The network is still the most-watched on cable and is expected to have more daily viewers on average than in any other midterm year going back to 1998. Fox News experienced a 28 per cent drop in its prime-time audience to an average of 2 million viewers from September 28 to October 25, according to Nielsen data.
“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.”
Versant Media Group’s MS NOW experienced a 15 per cent increase to 1.16 million viewers, while Skydance’s CNN averaged 644,000 viewers, a 16 per cent increase over the same period, Nielsen data showed.
Some media observers attribute the decline to President Donald Trump’s slipping approval ratings, suggesting disengagement from Fox’s traditional Republican audience. The Democrats are currently favoured by both traditional polls and prediction market odds to win the House of Representatives and Senate, as voters grapple with issues around affordability, a controversial war in Iran and tariffs.
Fox reported fiscal first-quarter revenue of $US4.57 billion ($6.5 billion), exceeding Wall Street’s estimates of $US4.31 billion. Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation were $US1.64 billion, beating analysts’ expectations of $US1.37 billion.
The network also reported record political advertising for midterms of more than $US350 million. Fox saw $US250 million spent on political ads on local stations, $US50 million on the Tubi streaming platform and another $US50 million for national political ads.
Overall, ad revenue jumped 47 per cent to $US2.08 billion in the quarter, mainly from broadcasting the men’s FIFA World Cup over the summer. Murdoch said the network is interested in pursuing the US media rights for the next two tournaments. FIFA began the bidding process for those last month. The rights are expected to fetch as much as $US4 billion.
“We were obviously happy with the performance of the World Cup this past year and we’ll be looking at the rights for 2030 and 2034 in a disciplined manner as we would with all sports rights,” Murdoch said.
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