福克斯公司首席执行官拉克兰·默多克承认，在中期选举前夕，福克斯新闻的收视率出现大幅下滑，并将其归因于“观众疲劳”。这家领先的有线新闻网络在2006年中期选举期间也出现过类似趋势，当时也是总统第二任期内——乔治·W·布什的第二任期，默多克周一在与分析师讨论财务业绩的电话会议上表示。
Corp. Chief Executive Officer Lachlan Murdoch acknowledged a steep decline in viewership on Fox News ahead of 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, Murdoch said on a call with analysts on Monday to discuss financial results.
福克斯去年因报道大规模洪水和右翼政治活动家查理·柯克遇刺等话题而取得了强劲收视率，这可能解释了今年不利的对比，默多克表示。根据尼尔森数据，总体而言，福克斯新闻在9月28日至10月25日期间，黄金时段收视率下降了28%，平均晚间观众为200万。
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 unfavorable comparison this year, Murdoch said. Overall, Fox News experienced a 28% drop in prime-time to an average of 2 million evening viewers from Sept. 28 to Oct. 25, according to Nielsen data.
“这些观众没有转到任何其他频道，”默多克说。“他们没有转到CNN或MS NOW。他们只是感到疲劳，总体上略微减少了观看电视的时间。”韦尔萨特媒体集团的MS NOW收视率增长15%，达到116万观众，而天际线公司的CNN平均观众为64.4万，同期增长16%，尼尔森数据显示。
“Those viewers are not going to any other channel,” 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 15% increase to 1.16 million viewers, while Skydance Corp.’s CNN averaged 644,000 viewers, a 16% increase over the same period, Nielsen data showed.
一些媒体观察家将下滑归因于总统唐纳德·特朗普支持率的下降，暗示福克斯传统的共和党受众正在脱离。随着选民努力应对可负担性、伊朗一场有争议的战争以及关税等问题，传统民调和预测市场赔率目前都倾向于民主党赢得众议院和参议院。
Some media observers attribute the decline to President Donald Trump’s slipping approval ratings, suggesting disengagement from Fox’s traditional Republican audience. The Democrats are currently favored by both traditional polls and prediction market odds to win the House of Representatives and Senate, as voters grapple with issues around affordability, a controversial war in Iran and tariffs.
福克斯公司报告称，财政第一季度收入为45.7亿美元，超过了华尔街预估的43.1亿美元。调整后的息税折旧摊销前利润为16.4亿美元，超过了分析师预期的13.7亿美元。
Fox reported fiscal first-quarter revenue of $4.57 billion, exceeding Wall Street’s estimates of $4.31 billion. Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization were $1.64 billion, beating analysts’ expectations of $1.37 billion.
该网络还报道称，中期选举的政治广告支出创下纪录，超过3.5亿美元。福克斯在地方电视台的政治广告支出为2.5亿美元，在Tubi流媒体平台上的支出为5000万美元，另外5000万美元用于全国性政治广告。
The network also reported record political advertising for midterms of more than $350 million. Fox saw $250 million spent on political ads on local stations, $50 million on the Tubi streaming platform and another $50 million for national political ads.
总体而言，该季度广告收入增长47%，达到20.8亿美元，主要得益于夏季转播的国际足联男子世界杯。默多克表示，该网络有意竞标未来两届赛事的美国媒体转播权。国际足联上个月启动了相关竞标程序。预计该转播权最高可达40亿美元。
Overall, ad revenue jumped 47% to $2.08 billion in the quarter, mainly from broadcasting the men’s FIFA World Cup over the summer. Murdoch said the network is interested in pursuing the US media rights for the next two tournaments. FIFA began the bidding process for those last month. The rights are expected to fetch as much as $4 billion.
“我们显然对去年世界杯的表现感到满意，我们将以审慎的方式审视2030年和2034年的转播权，就像对待所有体育转播权一样，”默多克说。
“We were obviously happy with the performance of the World Cup this past year and we’ll be looking at the rights for 2030 and 2034 in a disciplined manner as we would with all sports rights,” Murdoch said.