{"id":364492,"date":"2026-03-02T21:25:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T21:25:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/364492\/"},"modified":"2026-03-02T21:25:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T21:25:08","slug":"lachlan-murdoch-on-wbd-paramount-deal-cnn-vs-fox-news-nfl-talks-and-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/364492\/","title":{"rendered":"Lachlan Murdoch On WBD-Paramount Deal, CNN Vs, Fox News, NFL Talks And More"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tFox Corp.<\/a> CEO Lachlan Murdoch<\/a> said CNN\u2019s soon-to-be stewards at Paramount are apt to reinvigorate the news network, but he expressed confidence that Fox News<\/a> can withstand a potential challenge.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe have been winning, and we win amongst strong competition,\u201d Murdoch said at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media & Telecom Conference. \u201cUnder the Ellisons, CNN obviously will be a strong competitor, as we\u2019d expect. But we like competition, and we\u2019ve proven over many years now that we can \u2013 running news is hard.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tFox News has been operating for 30 years, Murdoch continued, and roughly 100 of its employees \u201chave been there the whole time. They\u2019re deeply engaged, they\u2019re deeply kind of committed to the business, have tremendous skills, and it shows up in the ratings.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe reality of the $110 billion tie-up, which was formalized on Friday after Netflix bowed out of the bidding, is still sinking in across the industry. One area that is sure to get a lot of attention is news, given the coming together of CBS News (already a talking point since the August 2025 merger of Skydance and Paramount) and CNN. <\/p>\n

\n\tIt is still too early to tell what the strategic plan is for those assets. Synergies and the political leanings of Paramount\u2019s leaders and investors (notably Larry Ellison, the Oracle billionaire who is an ally of President Donald Trump, father of Paramount CEO David Ellison and an investor in the WBD<\/a> deal) are apt to bring about major changes. Staffers are already bracing<\/a> for the latest round of corporate maneuvering to hit the network.<\/p>\n

\n\tAsked about the deal more broadly, Murdoch said, \u201cWe wish them the best of luck. We\u2019ve seen this regardless, whether it was Netflix acquiring Warner Bros. Discovery, or Paramount acquiring Warner Bros. Discovery. There will be conditions put on this transaction we would expect, which will require a producer of that size to continue to sell their content to third-party platform\u201d like Fox.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe think that\u2019s very important, and we would expect that to be a condition put upon any transaction.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tMurdoch was also asked about the NFL. Fox, which has carried the NFL for the past three decades, is among the league\u2019s partners facing an imminent renegotiation of the current rights deal. The NFL has an out in the current contract at the end of the 2029 season, three years ahead of the full term\u2019s expiration. <\/p>\n

\n\tPreliminary talks about renewals have already begun between the league and its media and streaming partners, with the likely outcome being an increase in fees being paid by rightsholders. One prominent Wall Street analyst recently downgraded Fox\u2019s stock due to its exposure to a spike in rights fees, with walking away from the 800-pound gorilla of media not an option.<\/p>\n

\n\tDescribing the company\u2019s relationship with the league as \u201cvery strong,\u201d Murdoch said Fox has not yet had \u201cmaterial conversations\u201d toward a renewal. \u201cWe have four more years on our contract before any kind of presumed opt-out would take effect. So, we feel comfortable with where we are. We think we\u2019re paying market price for the NFL today. The prices were renegotiated only three years ago. They went up, I think, more than 100% three years ago, so we think we think our current pricing is at market, but to the extent that there was any incremental cost for that NFL programming, I think the key thing for people to realize is that incremental cost would flow through to local affiliates, to our distributors, and ultimately, to consumers and to fans.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fox Corp. CEO Lachlan Murdoch said CNN\u2019s soon-to-be stewards at Paramount are apt to reinvigorate the news network,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":364493,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[265],"tags":[18,117,23887,24985,19,17,37899,169458,128,95819],"class_list":["post-364492","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-eire","tag-entertainment","tag-fox-corp","tag-fox-news","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-lachlan-murdoch","tag-mergers-and-acquistiions","tag-tv","tag-wbd"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116161696587735240","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364492","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=364492"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364492\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/364493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=364492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=364492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=364492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}