Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch acknowledged a steep decline in viewership on Fox News ahead of US midterm elections and attributed it to “viewer fatigue”.
The leading cable news network had seen similar trends during the 2006 midterms, which also fell during a president’s second term — George W Bush’s, Mr Murdoch said on a call with analysts on Monday to discuss financial results.
Fox notched strong viewership last year because of coverage on topics like massive floods and the assassination of right-wing political activist Charlie Kirk, which could account for the unfavourable comparison this year, Mr Murdoch said.
Overall, Fox News experienced a 28pc drop in prime-time viewers to an average of two million evening viewers from September 28 to October 25, according to Nielsen data.
“Those viewers are not going to any other channel,” Mr Murdoch said.
“They’re not switching to CNN or MS NOW.
They’re just fatigued and watching slightly less television overall.” Versant Media Group’s MS NOW experienced a 15pc increase to 1.16 million viewers, while Skydance Corp’s CNN averaged 644,000 viewers, a 16pc increase over the same....
