Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch Sees Little Impact From WGA Strike Given Company’s Focus On Sports, News & Unscripted Fare

“Republicans are back on the air. Republicans weren’t on the air,” on CNN, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav told a media conference Thursday as he said the storied brand is moving to become less of an “advocacy network” under new leadership.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor The upfront presentation that looks most like traditional TV came from a company that likes to tell investors, advertisers and consumers how it’s leapfrogging that entire business. Netflix on Wednesday showed dozens of scripted series and movies that could support advertising — if only Madison Avenue would take a chance and bet on its nascent efforts to sell commercials. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Chris Hemsworth and Julia Roberts were only some of the actors whose efforts could be tied to advertising. Counterparts like NBCUniversal and Fox Corp. were hard-pressed to do the same earlier this week. “We are just getting started,” said Peter Naylor, vice president of global advertising sales at Netflix.

banner headline on Wednesday claiming the exclusive, saying that “Hannity” would move to 8 p.m., and that Greg Gutfeld and Jesse Waters would be moving to join him in primetime. There was no attribution or additional information, however, and the headline linked to a Mediate write-up of the Drudge headline.Fox strongly denied that any programming decisions had been made in the wake of Carlson’s ouster: “No decision has been made on a new primetime line-up and there are multiple scenarios under consideration,” Fox News said in a statement Wednesday.Drudge wrote that a “top source” told the site founder otherwise:“FOXNEWS preparing to announce ambitious new schedule, the DRUDGE REPORT has learned, a schedule where every hour of primetime will change!,” Drudge wrote Wednesday.

Tatiana Siegel The mystery surrounding Tucker Carlson’s ouster from the airwaves at Fox News — and his future plans in media — are coming into sharper focus. On April 26, Carlson spoke by phone with one of Fox Corp.’s eight board members, who told the host that his recent benching was a condition of Fox News’ settlement with Dominion Voting Systems, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the conversation. The unnamed board member told Carlson that the condition does not appear in any of the settlement’s documents, and instead was a verbal agreement. If Fox didn’t comply, the settlement was off, Carlson was told. Dominion had plenty of leverage given that the $787.5 million deal to settle Dominion’s defamation suit against the network wouldn’t officially close until late-May.

Fox News is facing another defamation lawsuit, this time from the former executive director of a Department of Homeland Security division tasked with monitoring the threat of disinformation.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor In an era when gargantuan media conglomerates hope to tempt advertisers into buying tons of commercials across many networks, streaming outlets and digital sites, Marianne Gambelli has come to appreciate the art of staying small. The executive, president of ad sales for Fox Corp., says in an interview that she believes the company will stand apart in the TV industry’s looming “upfront” sales session by not pressing potential sponsors to snap up commercial inventory in multiple venues. Want to buy an ad in a Fox Sunday NFL broadcast without having to load up on commercial avails at Tubi? Gambelli says staffers are willing to accomodate.

No one was expecting an apology and in fact Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch applauded “the highest journalistic standards” displayed at Fox News, saying the near $800 million settlement with Dominion Voting Systems was a business decision made to resolve the dispute and “avoid the acrimony of multi-year litigation.”

Fox Corp. said it swung to a $50 million loss last quarter from a $290 million profit the year before mostly due to the cost of a legal settlement with Dominion Voting Services.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor The costs of settling a closely scrutinized defamation lawsuit levied by Dominion Voting Systems wiped out profit at Fox Corp., spurring a loss of more than $50 million in its third fiscal quarter despite seeing increases in revenue from advertising and distribution. The costs of setting the suit — Fox agreed to pay $787.5 million to settle claims that Fox News personalities had deliberately passed along erroneous information about Dominion’s role in the 2020 presidential election — that it offset a 43% gain in advertising during the quarter due to Fox’s broadcast of Super Bowl LVII, typically an event that boosts corporate performance year in and year out. Fox posted a loss of $54 billion, compared to profit of $283 billion in the year-earlier period. It attributed the loss to “charges associated with legal settlement costs at Fox News Media.”

Confider reported that text messages between Carlson and the network’s then-chief political anchor Bret Baier revealed that they were worried that Fox would be “destroyed” by its early but accurate call of Arizona for Biden.“I’ve got four more years here. I’m stuck with Fox. Got to do whatever I can to keep our numbers up and our viewers happy,” Carlson tweeted.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Tucker Carlson is out at 8 p.m. on Fox News Channel, and the network hopes that a host of blue-chip advertisers that for years avoided his controversial hour will soon come back in. Since Carlson’s stunning exit last month, a timeslot that has been shunned by many Madison Avenue stalwarts seems as if it is being embraced. Procter & Gamble, one of the nation’s largest and most influential advertisers, has been running ads in “Fox News Tonight,” the network’s new 8 p.m. program, for female-skewing products like Venus razor blades by Gillette and Secret underarm deodorant. Also showing up in commercial breaks: Novo Nordisk’s trendy medication Ozempic, and Scotts Miracle-Gro.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor How much should it cost to end media scrutiny on the internal workings of a news organization? Fox Corp. thinks an outlay of $787.5 million ought to be sufficient. In a letter filed Wednesday with the Superior Court of the State of Delaware, an attorney for Fox Corp. sought to keep redactions intact in documents supporting the case, and pressed a judge to keep media organizations from being able to examine the evidence further. “Fox agreed to settle this case to buy peace and bring an end to the media spectacle that the case had become,” says Katherine L. Mowery, an attorney representing Fox Corp. in its bid to quell further releases pertaining to its recent defamation settlement agreement with ballot-technology firm Dominion Voting Corp.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Shares of media companies stayed relatively tranquil Wednesday amid the work stoppage imposed by the WGA’s writers strike and another interest rate increase by the Federal Reserve. WGA union members took the picket lines in L.A. and New York for a second day, as they called on studios and streaming companies to agree to new contract terms for Hollywood writers. Meanwhile, the Fed on Wednesday raised its benchmark policy rate by 0.25%, to a new range of 5% to 5.25%, which is the highest it’s been since September 2007. On the interest-rate hike, the Dow Jones Industrial Average turned negative and closed down 0.8% Wednesday, down 270.29 points to 33,414.24, while the Nasdaq ended the day down 0.46%.

Charlie Collier, who segued last fall from lengthy exec stints at Fox Corp. and AMC Networks to a top post at Roku, took the stage at his first NewFronts pitch Tuesday to invite advertisers to bring their messages to the stream.

including Tubi, Credible and Blockchain Creative Labs – as well as thedigital platforms and teams that underpin FOX’s wider digital businessin Sports, News and Entertainment. “We have incredible momentum across our digital portfolio at FOX and it’s a privilege to lead and oversee this next stage of growth,” said Cheesbrough. “With a strong foundation to build off, from Tubi’s unrivaled growth in the AVOD space to our record setting 4K streaming operation for Super Bowl LVII, I’m looking forward to working with our talented team to drive this growth for FOX.

Joe Otterson TV Reporter Tubi founder and CEO Farhad Massoudi is stepping down as Fox Corporation is forming the Tubi Media Group led by Paul Cheesbrough. Massoudi will remain with Tubi through a transition period until the end of June. A new CEO of Tubi Streaming will be announced at a later date. “Our strategic acquisition of Tubi in 2020 established a cornerstone in our digital streaming strategy, which under Paul and Farhad’s leadership has driven record growth and is now the clear market leader in AVOD in the US,” said Lachlan Murdoch, executive chair and CEO of Fox Corp. ““Building off this momentum, and complementing the strong growth being driven in our company wide digital revenues, now is the right time to bring these efforts together into a new business unit which will be tasked with spearheading our digital expansion and partnering with our brands to drive continued growth.”

surprise firing of the channel’s controversial opinion host Tucker Carlson.“Conservative media and the conservative movement are very effective. They’re rich, effective, successful, thriving enterprises,” Maddow said during her show as she addressed what Carlson’s shocking departure means for conservative media.

Ellise Shafer Brian Kilmeade took over Fox News’ 8 p.m. hour on Monday night following news of Tucker Carlson’s exit from the network. The “Fox & Friends” anchor briefly addressed Carlson’s departure at the top of the program, which was renamed “Fox News Tonight” instead of “Tucker Carlson Tonight.” “As you probably have heard, Fox News and Tucker Carlson have agreed to part ways,” Kilmeade said. “I wish Tucker the best. I’m great friends with Tucker and always will be. But right now, it’s time for ‘Fox News Tonight,’ so let’s get started.” In a surprise move, Fox News announced on Monday morning that its most-watched primetime host would leave the network. “Fox News Media and Tucker Carlson have agreed to part ways,” the company said in a statement. “We thank him for his service to the network as a host and prior to that as a contributor.” 

settling with Dominion Voting Systems’ defamation lawsuit for $787.5 million.Following his abrupt exit, the Los Angeles Times reported that Fox Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch made the decision to terminate Carlson and that it was related to a discrimination lawsuit filed by former Fox News producer Abby Grossberg, which accused the “Tucker Carlson Tonight” anchor and his staff of making sexist and antisemitic jokes.

Brian Kilmeade will host Fox News Tonight on Monday and is expected to address the exit of Tucker Carlson from the network.