WASHINGTON, DC – MARCH 04: Political commentator and host at Fox News Jesse Watters appears on air during the Fox News Special prior to President Trump’s Joint Address to Congress at the FOX News D.C. Bureau on March 04, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Jemal Countess/Getty Images)
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Fox Corporation Executive Chair and CEO Lachlan Murdoch says Fox News Media has attracted 350 new national advertisers in 2025, leading the company to its highest ad revenue quarter in history, a noteworthy achievement coming a year after a presidential election, when cable news viewership typically rises.
“Fox News sustained a strong ratings and audience momentum throughout the quarter,” Murdoch said Monday as the company released its quarterly earnings report. “Fox News once again cemented its status as the most watched cable network in total day and in prime time. Even more impressive, Fox News is the most-viewed network in all television in weekday prime calendar year to date.”
Through October, Fox News has not just dominated its cable news competitors, but has led all cable and broadcast networks, averaging 3.281 million viewers in weekday prime, just ahead of ABC (3.252 million viewers), CBS (3.104 million viewers) and NBC (3.087 million viewers).
In October, Fox News delivered an average prime time audience of 2.3 million viewers, while its cable news competitors CNN and MSNBC fell to record lows.
‘A tremendous achievement’
“The strength of the Fox News pricing really obviously comes from the share that we’re achieving in the marketplace,” Murdoch said. “We’re up 63% share versus our news competitors…but equally important is, you know, we are the number one channel in all of television year to date. Obviously, as you go into fall and you have fall entertainment, programming, and football, They’re tough comps coming. But number one, year-to-date in all of television is a tremendous achievement.”
Murdoch believes viewers are seeing Fox News the way he sees it: as more than just a cable news channel. Back in March, Murdoch told the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media & Telecom Conference that “it’s important to note that we don’t see Fox News anymore as just a news service. We see it as one of the top five broadcast networks in the United States, even though we don’t have the same distribution that broadcast has.”
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – OCTOBER 15: Fox anchor Martha MacCallum interviews New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani during “The Story With Martha MacCallum” at Fox News Channel Studios on October 15, 2025 in New York City. (Photo by John Lamparski/Getty Images)
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New advertisers are giving Fox a try, and coming back
Murdoch told investors and analysts that Fox–despite its recent ratings success compared to the legacy broadcast networks–still charges advertisers much less than ABC, CBS and NBC. “So it’s a very efficient buy for our clients who are experimenting on the channel and are coming back and continue to spend more,” he said.
“We’re seeing very, very healthy, very strong pricing,” Murdoch added, with many of the network’s new national advertisers continue to spend, and in “most cases, increase their spend.”
Beating Wall Street expectations
Ad spending helped Fox Corp to beat analysts’ expectations for the fiscal first quarter, where the Wall Street consensus was for earnings per share of $1.06 and revenue of $3.58 billion. Fox beat both, reporting adjusted earnings of $1.51 per share and total revenue of $3.7 billion.
Ad revenue at Fox News–part of Fox Corp’s cable network programming division–were up 7% to $345 million, while advertising at the Fox broadcast network and Fox’s owned-and-operated local television stations rose 6% to $1.07 billion.
“The quality of our assets and their consistent capacity to deliver financially gives me great confidence in the positive outlook for Fox,” Murdoch said in the company’s earnings release.
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/markjoyella/2025/10/30/fox-news-reports-its-highest-first-quarter-ad-revenue-in-history/
