Fox Corp Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

Fox Corp. CEO Lachlan Murdoch said seven-time Super Bowl champion Tom Brady will be much more than a Sunday night analyst for Fox Sports but a partner after inking a deal said to be worth $375 million over ten years with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called on Rupert Murdoch and other top executives of Fox Corp. and Fox News to stop the “reckless amplification” of the “great replacement theory” by some of the news channel’s hosts.

Cynthia Littleton Business EditorFox Corp. surprised the industry on Monday by hosting an upfront programming presentation that was entirely pre-recorded.About 800 attendees gathered at the Skylight venue in Lower Manhattan for the presentation that unfolded in immersive fashion across giant screens.Attendees sat nightclub-style in the round at small tables.

Breaking records on and off the field? Fox spoke out about the reported $375 million deal Tom Brady signed to become the network’s lead NFL analyst once he retires from football for good.

football analyst once his playing career ends, the network said Tuesday.When that actually happens is unclear, because Brady recently changed his mind about retiring and said he plans to continue playing for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for his 23rd NFL season.Fox Corp. CEO Lachlan Murdoch made the announcement during a corporate investor call on Tuesday.“Over the course of this long-term agreement, Tom will not only call our our biggest NFL games with Kevin Burkhardt, he will also serve as an ambassador for us, particularly with respect to client and promotional initiatives,” Murdoch said.Murdoch said it's “entirely up to” Brady when he decides to retire from football and join Fox.

Quarterback Tom Brady has been confirmed as Fox’s lead NFL analyst, with the job waiting for him whenever his playing career finally concludes.

Tom Brady has a job lined up for when he actually does decide to retire from the NFL!

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorFox Corporation said profit dipped in its third fiscal quarter due to declines in value of some of its outside investments, even as revenue increased at its mainstay cable and broadcast operations.The owner of the Fox broadcast network, Fox Sports and Fox News Channel said net income attributable to shareholders came to $283 million, or 50 cents per share, compared with  $567 million, or 96 cents per share, in the year-earlier period. The company has a sizable stake in Flutter Entertainment, the sports-betting company that controls FanDuel.  Meanwhile, the company enjoyed a 7% increase in revenue, which rose to $3.46 billion from $3.22 billion a year earlier.In a statement, Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch cited “pricing strength in both distribution and advertising revenues across our leadership brands, complemented by the powerful momentum we continue to see at Tubi,” the company’s streaming hub, as reasons for the revenue gains.

Fox Corp. delivered a mix bag of financial results in its fiscal third quarter, with revenue exceeding Wall Street expectations but earnings falling short.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorSharon Osbourne will take part in a new four-part documentary series for the streaming-video outlet Fox Nation that will examine her personal and professional lives as well as her much-scrutinized exit from the CBS daytime series “The Talk.”Osbourne intends to document her experience at CBS and discuss the events that led to her departure in March of 2021. Osbourne, a colorful personality and one-time music manager, first came to broader renown in the MTV reality series “The Osbournes,” which depicted her life with rock singer Ozzy Osbourne.

More than two years into its run at Fox Corp., Tubi is ramping up in original programming, planning 100 new film and TV titles over the next year as viewership continues to rise.

Fox Corp.’s free, ad-supported streaming service Tubi is working on an expansion of its current arrangement with Nielsen that will enlarge the scope of where its viewership is measured.

After two years of virtual operations due to Covid, AMC Networks is convening an in-person upfront presentation tonight in New York, where it will highlight a number of digital ad initiatives.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorEveryone’s talking about this week’s furor at the Oscars — even the hosts at Fox News Channel’s “The Five.”On Monday afternoon, regulars Greg Gutfeld, Dana Perino, Jesse Watters and Jeanine Pirro held forth with guest Piers Morgan — the British journalist and TV host who has demonstrated a proclivity for getting into celebrity feuds — sitting in a chair typically reserved for someone with more liberal political views. In the show’s opening segment, however, politics went out the window.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorFox Corporation wants Madison Avenue to understand that Fox News doesn’t always mean hard-news content.As the company’s biggest generator of operating profit expands into weather news and lifestyle shows, its ad-tech division is offering new tools aimed at helping advertisers find the exact types of digital content they want to support. Fox Corp.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorBenjamin Hall, the Fox News Channel correspondent who was injured while covering Russia’s invasion of Ukraine for the Fox Corp.-owned network, has managed to get out of the country, according to a memo from Suzanne Scott, Fox News Media’s CEO, issued Wednesday.“Ben is alert and in good spirits. He is being treated with the best possible care in the world and we are in close contact with his wife and family,” Scott said in the note to staffers.Fox News has deployed a handful of correspondents around the country, including Trey Yingst and Steve Harrigan.Hall had been reporting in Horenka, outside of Kyiv, Ukraine, with cameraman Pierre Zakrzewski and journalist Oleksandra “Sasha” Kuvshynova when their vehicle came under fire.

Fox Corp. CEO Lachlan Murdoch sees “a gap in the market for football” that the USFL can exploit when the professional league kicks off its inaugural season on April 16.

Fox Audio Network, which combines all of Fox’s news, sports and entertainment podcasts, has inked a comprehensive advertising and distribution deal with Megaphone, a Spotify company, as the exclusive hosting platform for its growing slate.

Wilson Chapman editorMark Gage Stroman, the entertainment advertising strategist who was an early hire at the fledging Fox Broadcasting Co., died Feb. 22 due to complications from COVID. He was 58.Stroman, who most recently served as chief marketing officer of Spin Media, had a long career in advertising and marketing.

After retreating on Thursday due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, U.S. stock markets rebounded sharply today as bargain-hunters bought in and investors cheered news of possible diplomatic talks.

As the surge of Covid infections in December and January due to the Omicron variant continues to recede, media and entertainment companies are starting to update their return-to-office plans.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorAMC Networks says it plans to sell three addressable ad slots in each linear hour of original programs on its flagship cable network as well as WeTV, the latest expansion of technology that allows advertisers to hone their pitches to radiational mass TV audiences.The spots are slated to run on Comcast, Charter and Cox cable systems and have the potential to reach 35 million U.S. homes.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorMadison Avenue is getting closer to realizing its dream of using TV advertising to talk to viewers in a style more akin to a one-to-one conversationThe future of the humble TV ad has long been described as the following: New data and interactive technology will trim the practice of throwing a diaper ad or a car spot at every single member of the audience. Instead, more marketers will use addressable technology that allows them to beam different ads to different household, all in the same “slot” in a commercial break.Horizon, the independent media-investment company, will help deploy addressable ads in national linear inventory on networks owned by A+E Networks and Fox Corp.

Fox Corp.’s Tubi had 3.6 billion hours streamed in 2021, a 40% increase over 2020, as overall viewing migrates from subscription to free and ad-supported services.

Fox Corp. reported sales of $4.4 billion in its fiscal second quarter ended in December, up 9% from the year before, beating Wall Street forecasts and citing sports, Fox Network pricing and Tubi.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorJonah Goldberg, one of the two conservative political analysts who resigned from Fox News Channel in colorful fashion over its coverage, is joining CNN as a contributor, the WarnerMedia network confirmed Monday.Goldberg, a longtime editor at National Review and a founder of The Dispatch, will appear on CNN programs as news networks gear up for the 2022 midterm elections. He and another popular conservative commentator, Stephen Hayes, took to the “Media Equation” column of The New York Times in November to say they were cutting ties with Fox News Channel, where they had been contributors since 2009.

Fox Entertainment and Hulu have set a comprehensive output deal enabling the Disney-owned service to stream all out-of-season episodes of many Fox series, including all of the network’s unscripted fare.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editortephen Hayes, the conservative political analyst who raised eyebrows in November when he took to The New York Times to announce his breaking ties with Fox News Channel as a longtime contributor, is taking up with NBC News in advance of the midterm elections.Hayes is expected to appear regularly across all NBC News properties, including TV shows like “Today,” “Meet The Press” and the streaming outlet NBC News Now. His first appearance under his new contributor deal with the NBCUniversal news division is expected to take place this Sunday on “Meet The Press.”Hayes is a founder of “The Dispatch,” a digital publication that espouses a center-right  point of view.

Fox Corp.’s distribution unit Fox First Run has renewed four original syndicated shows, including the Jay Leno-hosted reboot of You Bet Your Life.