“A Mindset Change In The Country” Since Trump’s Win Is Drawing Blue-Chip Advertisers Back To Fox News, Top Exec Says

In the wake of Donald Trump‘s victory in the presidential election, “a mindset change in the country” has lured a number of top-tier advertisers back to Fox News, according to a top exec at Fox Corp.

Fox Corp. CFO Steve Tomsic offered his take on the news outlet’s rise during an appearance Tuesday at the Barclays Communications and Content Symposium.

“It feels enduring,” he said. “It feels like there’s a mindset change in the country that liberated advertisers and agencies to feel good about advertising on Fox News. Therefore, you’ve seen just in the past couple of months 100 blue-chip advertisers join the roster to advertise on Fox News.”

While its dominance of cable news has remained largely intact, Fox News has wavered over the years both in its coverage of Trump and, at times, in its battles for viewers with CNN and MSNBC. (The cable news field has recently tilted heavily in Fox’s direction.)

After airing a number of false claims of election fraud perpetuated by Trump, Fox paid $787.5 million in 2023 to settle a defamation claim brought by Dominion Voting Systems. In addition to election denialism, prime-time hosts including the now-departed Tucker Carlson drew fire for comments about Black Lives Matter, immigration and other topics, leading to an exodus of advertisers. While many of the pullouts were performative and revenue continued to flow, diehards like Mike Lyndell and his low-fi pitches for MyPillow came to be seen as foundational pieces of the network’s advertising support.

“You’d have these crazy things where they would blacklist certain shows because they didn’t want to be in that hour,” Tomsic acknowledged. Today, he maintained, “a ton of our shows are now being whitelisted within the Fox News schedule, which is great.”

The increase in buyer interest, he said, is being driven by advertisers’ need for audience and reach. The reach of Fox News, Tomsic said, “can no longer be denied,” with a 23% share of prime time viewing in January.

In the quarter ended Dec. 31, Fox Corp. reported a 21% jump in total ad revenue to $2.4 billion. In the Cable Network Programming division, ad revenue shot up 32%.