Fox One Offsets Cord-Cutting — For Now, Murdoch Says

By James Calloway

Fox Corp.'s total subscriber base grew over the trailing 12 months once Fox One is counted, with third-party distribution declines slowing to the low-6% range, CFO Steve Tomsic said Monday on the company's fiscal 1Q27 earnings call. Executive Chair and CEO Lachlan Murdoch's verdict on the year-old streaming service: "Fox One has hit it out of the park."

The numbers back him up, at least for a quarter. September subscriber acquisitions rose more than 30% versus the start of last year's football season. Cable network distribution revenue climbed 10% to $1.2 billion, driven by contractual rate increases and a net gain in average subscribers.

Who is actually signing up for Fox One?

The stat that matters most to Fox: about 97% of new Fox One subscribers don't have a cable subscription. Murdoch said the company didn't expect to reach that figure when it first outlined its expectations.

"I didn't believe that we'd be able to achieve that, but it's really the result of being very focused, being very careful in our marketing [and] understanding that a subscriber from the pay TV system into Fox One doesn't do us any favors," Murdoch said.

He tempered the enthusiasm with a sports-reality check. "Is Fox One always going to be able to supplant the subscriber losses in the traditional ecosystem? Probably not, as sports seasons come and go," he said.

On bundling — a question analysts raised about the young SVOD's modest partnership impact so far — Murdoch said Fox One would "bundle with all sorts of distributors, platforms and other content providers" as it matures. Additional bundles are planned, though he offered no detail.

The takeaway: Fox One is adding cord-nevers, not cannibalizing pay TV — but its growth curve rides on the sports calendar.

What did political advertising deliver?

On the eve of the 2026 midterms, Fox's political advertising topped $350 million company-wide — a record for a midterm cycle. The breakdown:

• $200–250 million from local stations
• $50 million from Tubi, which Murdoch called "effectively local revenue" because it's targeted
• $50 million-plus from national political ads across sports, news and entertainment

Murdoch described it as a "dramatically positive" revenue cycle, noting stations ran out of availability and pushed some base businesses aside. In the TV segment, advertising rose 60% to $1.71 billion, helped by the men's World Cup as well as political spending. TV segment EBITDA more than doubled to $934 million. Total quarterly advertising revenue jumped 47% to $2.08 billion.

The plain read: politics plus the World Cup made this the strongest ad quarter Fox has posted in some time.

Why did Fox News ratings fall in October?

The weak spot is Fox News. In October 2025, the network averaged 2.33 million primetime viewers P2+ and 1.51 million in total day. This October, those figures fell to 1.68 million and 1.1 million, respectively.

Murdoch attributed the decline to "viewer fatigue" and a tough comparison against last year's news cycle, which included the inauguration, DOGE and the Charlie Kirk assassination. He claimed viewers aren't switching to CNN or MS Now — but the numbers show bumps at both, even if marginal:

• CNN: primetime rose from 504,000 to 598,000; total day from 388,000 to 402,000
• MS Now: primetime rose from 815,000 to 925,000; total day from 504,000 to 588,000

"This cycle is analogous, not entirely, but somewhat analogous to the 2006 midterms, when you have a second-term president going into their midterms halfway through the second term, and you just see this viewer fatigue," Murdoch said. "We've seen this playbook, and we know how to move through it."

What's next for Tubi and the Roku deal?

Tubi grew revenue 35% and view time 23%, and the AVOD service has begun contributing to EBITDA. Murdoch had previously told analysts not to expect sustained mid-teens revenue growth from Tubi; after more than a year of upward movement, he's happy to be proven wrong.

Fox took no questions on the pending Roku deal during the Q&A, but Murdoch addressed the $22 billion merger in prepared remarks, noting the combination has received all necessary shareholder and foreign regulatory approvals. "We are continuing to work cooperatively with the DOJ in order to obtain [Hart-Scott-Rodino] clearance and expect to close the transaction as soon as we can," Murdoch said.

With DOJ clearance as the last gate, Roku could close soon — and give Fox One the distribution scale that bundling hasn't yet delivered.