Rupert Murdoch wined and dined Trump to ramp up federal pressure on NFL, per...
In a bold gambit, nonagenarian media magnate Rupert Murdoch dined with President Donald Trump in February to encourage federal pressure on his Fox Corporation’s most important business partner, the NFL.
According to a quad-bylined Wall Street Journal report, Murdoch and his top lieutenants “warned Trump that if streamers gained rights to more games, it would kill broadcast networks,” like Fox.
In the subsequent weeks and months, the FCC launched an inquiry into the fragmentation of sports telecasts, and the DOJ opened an investigation into the limited antitrust exemption granted to the NFL and other major professional sports leagues which allows them to centralize the sale of media rights between teams. The exemption is the federal statute most central to the NFL’s business operations, and any change to how the legislation granting it is interpreted, like suggesting the exemption should only apply to game telecasts distributed via broadcast networks and exclude telecasts exclusive to cable channels or streaming platforms, would directly threaten how the NFL conducts business.
To make this plea at the highest levels of government, Rupert Murdoch had to know the risks involved. NFL programming is the lifeblood of Fox Corporation, allowing the company to command lucrative retransmission fees from distributors and local affiliates, not to mention the advertising windfall that comes with airing Sunday football. Without the NFL, the future of Fox would be in jeopardy.
Murdoch’s meeting came at a high-stakes moment for his broadcast network. The NFL has been angling to renegotiate its media rights deals early in the hopes of securing annual fee increases from its broadcast partners that could amount to billions more dollars annually. Fox, by far the smallest NFL partner by market cap, would be particularly burdened by an increase of that magnitude.
https://finance.yahoo.com/...
In a bold gambit, nonagenarian media magnate Rupert Murdoch dined with President Donald Trump in February to encourage federal pressure on his Fox Corporation’s most important business partner, the NFL.
According to a quad-bylined Wall Street Journal report, Murdoch and his top lieutenants “warned Trump that if streamers gained rights to more games, it would kill broadcast networks,” like Fox.
In the subsequent weeks and months, the FCC launched an inquiry into the fragmentation of sports telecasts, and the DOJ opened an investigation into the limited antitrust exemption granted to the NFL and other major professional sports leagues which allows them to centralize the sale of media rights between teams. The exemption is the federal statute most central to the NFL’s business operations, and any change to how the legislation granting it is interpreted, like suggesting the exemption should only apply to game telecasts distributed via broadcast networks and exclude telecasts exclusive to cable channels or streaming platforms, would directly threaten how the NFL conducts business.
To make this plea at the highest levels of government, Rupert Murdoch had to know the risks involved. NFL programming is the lifeblood of Fox Corporation, allowing the company to command lucrative retransmission fees from distributors and local affiliates, not to mention the advertising windfall that comes with airing Sunday football. Without the NFL, the future of Fox would be in jeopardy.
Murdoch’s meeting came at a high-stakes moment for his broadcast network. The NFL has been angling to renegotiate its media rights deals early in the hopes of securing annual fee increases from its broadcast partners that could amount to billions more dollars annually. Fox, by far the smallest NFL partner by market cap, would be particularly burdened by an increase of that magnitude.
https://finance.yahoo.com/...
27 days ago
