Fox Corp. CEO Lachlan Murdoch spoke on the company’s investor call Tuesday morning and said that the strategy of Fox News will not change simply because primetime host Tucker Carlson is no longer associated with the brand.
“There’s no change to our programming strategy at Fox News. It’s obviously a successful strategy, and as always, we are adjusting our programming and our line up and that’s what we continue to do,” Murdoch said. “We are pleased with the strength of the advertising demand throughout our schedule, but particularly primetime.”
During the call, Fox Corp. claimed it saw a loss of $50 million during the last quarter, down from the $290 million in profit it saw in the same window last year. However, the loss can be directly attributed to the $787.5 million settlement Fox Corp. reached with Dominion Voting Systems over the election machine company’s defamation lawsuit.
When questioned why the company ultimately agreed to settle the suit, Murdoch said several factors made it the best decision for Fox Corp. to move forward.
“The Delaware court severely limited our defenses at trial through pretrial rulings, one example being not being able to point to the newsworthy nature of the allegations,” said Murdoch. “So, we determined that the best course of action for the company and its shareholders was to settle instead of proceeding with a six-week trial and potentially two or even three years of appeals.”
