THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER 68 OCTOBER 16, 2019
Illustrations by Nigel BuchananX
Fox News grabs
all the headlines
(and most of the
bottom line, generat-
ing about $1 billion a
year in profit), but the
slimmed-down Fox
Corp. under executive
chairman and CEO
Lachlan Murdoch,
48, and his chairman
father, Rupert, 88, is
no one-trick pony.
Since the Disney sale
closed in March, Fox
has diversified its
broadcast net and
sports operation with
acquisitions of an
online finance broker-
age (Credible Labs),
a sports gambling
venture (Fox Bets)
and a fledgling studio.
On a recent morn-
ing, Lachlan invited
THR to his office on
the West L.A. lot to
talk the news- and
sports-heavy strategyand why Fox News
talent can’t seem to
get along.What will direct-to-
consumer mean for
New Fox?
We have a very strong
D-to-C strategy, but
it’s not a platform
SVOD strategy.
Frankly, we don’t have
the entertainment
library to support that.
But take Fox Sportsand what we’re doing
on our authenticated
streaming apps, where
on any given Sunday,
we’ll have 135,000
people streaming the
NFL through their app.You’ve made a couple
of acquisitions, like
Bento Box, which
makes animated
shows. Do you antici-
pate rebuilding
a studio business?We do. Owning your IP
is incredibly impor-
tant. But what we’re
trying to do is look at
a new model where
we can do it with as
little overhead as
possible. So whether
it’s the acquisition of
Bento Box, or, we’ve
taken over produc-
tion of Masked Singer
in-house, which was
important. And then
with Gail Berman
rejoining the team
as well, it was impor-
tant to re-engage in
production but with as
streamlined an over-
head as possible.Family Guy creator
Seth MacFarlane
has said he’s “embar-
rassed” to work
for Fox. It has to
be awkward when
valuable creators
disagree so strongly
with the product at
Fox News.
I don’t think it’s awk-
ward at all, actually.
We’ve never steered
any creator to have
a political bent or to
influence what they
put on our air.But it’s gotten so
nasty at Fox News.
Look, I think unfortu-
nately in this country,
there is less and less
civil debate, and I think
we’re all poorer for it.Your family has been
in the news business
your whole life. Does
the scourge of misin-
formation out there
bother you?
One of the chal-
lenges is social media,
whether it’s Twitter,
Facebook — I’m not
sure about Google but,
you know, platforms
that are not managed.
In New Zealand, whenFacebook streamed
the mass shooting,
one of the things they
said was, “We can’t
control everything
that’s on our platform.”
Is it a good platform,
then? If you can’t
control it, that’s not an
excuse, right?Who in the media
world right now is
impressing you?
Can’t say Bob Iger.
I’ve got to say the
gaming companies,
Bobby Kotick [at
ActivisionBlizzard]
and those guys are
doing a tremendous
job, following the
trends with usage
and what people are
doing. Also Jeffrey
Katzenberg with Quibi.What is the growth
strategy for a com-
pany like Fox? Is it
acquisitions, or can
you grow with what
you have?
We absolutely can
grow with what we
have. Fundamentally,
the traditional met-
rics of the business
are all incredibly
strong. Advertising is
very strong. You have
subscriber erosion in
the satellite universe,
but we are compen-
sating for that with
the rates. Our season
premieres [on Fox]
have been terrific,
but the broadcast TV
audience, it’s shrink-
ing. And with further
investment into SVOD,
there’s going to
be more and more
choices. So for us, we
focus on live sports,
live news.How much priority
are you putting on the
gambling business
you now have?CEO Lachlan outlines the strategy for a slimmed-down Fox Corp., from studio growth
to sports betting as ‘the traditional metrics of the business are all incredibly strong’BY MATTHEW BELLONI
THE MURDOCHS’ NEXT MOVES