Fox Corporation President and COO John Nallen touted FOX News Media’s linear and digital success on Monday, predicting that recent growth is sustainable as President Donald Trump continues to produce a stunning amount of news.
“You look at Q3 to date, we’re up 50 percent in viewing from where we were a year ago. If you look at January as an example, we were second to NBC in primetime weekday. February, we were second to CBS. So, in many ways, Fox News is the fifth broadcast network now when you look at competition on a primetime basis,” Nallen said at Deutsche Bank’s annual Media, Internet & Telecom Conference in Palm Beach, Florida.
Nallen’s remarks echoed recent comments by FOX Corporation Executive Chair and CEO Lachlan Murdoch, who reminded investors earlier this month that Fox News Channel regularly outdraws free broadcast networks despite being on cable, particularly during primetime on weekdays.
OVER 10 MILLION VIEWERS WATCHED FOX NEWS’ INAUGURATION COVERAGE, CRUSHING ALL OTHER NETWORKS
“From a competitive standpoint, we’re really looking to the broadcast market more than we’re looking to the cable market just because of those kind of statistics that we have,” Nallen said.
“But a lot of advertisers have come to the FOX News Media platforms, particularly since the election, the inauguration. Just by way of example, across pharma, auto and travel, we have nine of the top 10 advertisers in America on Fox News. Across retail and financial, eight of the top 10 are on Fox News,” he continued. “So, it’s a complete sea change from where we were certainly 24 months ago, the rate of viewing is in Fox News. And I just think it continues.”
Fox News Channel obliterated competitors in 2024, finishing the year with its highest share of the cable news audience since 2015. The network has finished No. 1 in cable news among both total day and primetime viewers for 23 years in a row.
Fox News Channel also started 2025 off strong, averaging the largest audience in the first two months of a year in cable news history, while CNN and MSNBC both struggled. It was the network’s most-watched month of February of all time as Fox News finished with its third-highest share of the cable news audience since launching in 1996.
Nallen believes the Trump administration makes so much news that sky-high ratings are sustainable as Americans rely on Fox News for information and analysis.
“The president has two press conferences a day, and the amount of news that’s coming out of this is just shocking, the amount of viewing. An example I’ll give you is, last week, the equivalent of the State of the Union address, Fox News had 10 million viewers for it, which was — you look at ABC and CBS combined, we beat that combination,” Nallen said. “So, from a sustainability standpoint, I certainly think the next three-and-three-quarter years will be a really sustainable amount of news and viewing on the Fox News platform.”
FOX NEWS CHANNEL HAS BEST FEBRUARY IN NETWORK HISTORY, CRUSHES CNN AND MSNBC
Nallen also noted that Fox News has brought in roughly 125 new advertisers since the election. And while the linear network is thriving, Fox News Digital also continues to grow.
“Leading into the election, what we saw was that people either supplemented their news consumption with digital or solely sourced their news consumption with digital, be it dotcom, social, whatever. So, what we see in FoxNews.com – really healthy engagement. On YouTube, in January, Fox News had something like 410 million views. It was 2.5 times the next news brand inside of YouTube. It’s the NO. 1 news brand on YouTube, which is – again, people don’t appreciate the digital side of Fox News,” Nallen said.
“January also was a really historic [month] for Fox News across social media. So, whether it was Instagram, TikTok, X, Facebook, it was the best that Fox News has ever done from a consumption standpoint,” he continued. “The best-kept secret about Fox News is the digital side, where there is really significant consumption happening.”
Leave a Reply