Fox News Distribution boss Tim Carry is stepping down after two decades, TheWrap has confirmed.
He’s been involved in negotiating every carriage deal for both Fox News Channel and Fox Business Network since their respective inceptions. FNC started in 1996, FBN followed a full 11 years later.
With Carry gone, the negotiating structure for Fox News Channel and Fox Business Network might be turned over to the Fox Networks Group’s Distribution executives, TheWrap is told. Fox News had been the only outlier from the overall portfolio.
Fox News Channel has been No. 1 in total viewers across its cable news competition for the last 178 months. The week-away election has helped the network generate extra ad sales revenue over the last year or so. In other words, it’s quite a valuable piece of the overall 21st Century Fox pie.
Some of that success has been overshadowed by former Fox News boss Roger Ailes’ sexual harassment scandal. Ex-channel host Gretchen Carlson first lobbed such allegations — she’s since been followed by at least 20 other women.
Carlson ended up on the receiving end of a $20 million settlement, and Ailes went to the unemployment line.
As for FBN, well, those are some loyal TV viewers, according to measurement company Samba — especially during the recent presidential debates.
Before beginning his Fox News tenure, Carry worked at NBC Cable. He joined that company in 1992 as director of Affiliate Relations. There, Carry oversaw six states in the midwest. Two years later, he was named director of the unit’s northeast arm.
Twenty-First Century Fox will report its first-quarter 2016 earnings tomorrow afternoon. Media analysts may ask on a subsequent conference call about the upcoming Distribution structure.