Fox News Sees Return in Blue Chip Advertisers Amid Post-Election Ratings Surge: Financial Times
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In the wake of the 2024 election, Fox News has found itself a magnet for major advertisers, pulling in revenue from 125 major companies, according to a report from the Financial Times.
While cable news typically sees viewers tune out following contentious national elections, Rupert Murdoch’s flagship media company has experienced a surge in viewers that has been accompanied by major ad buys.
According to the FT, since President Donald Trump’s second election, companies such as Amazon, JPMorgan Chase, Netflix, and UBS have flocked to buy up space on cable’s most-watched network.
Fox Corp’s ad sales chief Jeff Collins celebrated his company had defied conventional wisdom regarding elections and ratings.
“Historically, after an election, networks will see ratings dips,” Collins told FT. “When we saw an acceleration in ratings, we saw new advertisers coming in.”
Writing for the British outlet, Anna Nicolaou and Gregory Meyer speculated the 2023 firing of Tucker Carlson had been a positive for Fox News as other cable nets struggle:
The influx of advertisers is a departure from the first Trump administration, when some brands avoided the network’s more controversial programming amid consumer backlash.
In 2018, former Fox host Tucker Carlson’s on-air comments about immigrants making the US “poorer and dirtier” spurred big brands such as T-Mobile to pull ads from his programme.
Fox executives say the network is partly benefiting from a decline in the wider traditional television universe. As audiences have shifted online, Fox News is among the few remaining places where brands can reach millions of viewers at once.
FT made note of a lack of recent and coordinated campaigns to boycott advertisers of Fox News. Ad analyst Brian Wieser told FT he believes a cultural shift could be partially responsible.
“To be blunt, not enough people care about the same issues they cared about in the past,” Wieser said. “There were advertisers who didn’t necessarily believe in the reasons why they should stay away from that kind of content, but they knew that it would be bad for their business. Nobody wanted a potential boycott.”
Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch reportedly recently told investors that advertisers now see Fox’s audience as “middle America” and are spending their money accordingly.
The network currently claims roughly 70% of the country’s cable-watching audience.
FT speculated Fox’s ability to bring on international figures such as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has helped it become a haven for audiences who bring with them ad revenue from blue chip companies.
