21st Century Fox executive chairman Rupert Murdoch had a message for a reporter who asked if he was worried about the on-going sexual harassment claims at his cable news juggernaut: “There is nothing happening at Fox News.”
BBC Media Editor Amol Rajan confronted Murdoch over British media regulator Ofcom’s investigation into whether of not Fox would be a “fit and proper” owner of United Kingdom pay TV giant Sky. Fox bid $14.4 billion for all of Sky, of which it already owns a 39 percent stake. But Attorney Lisa Bloom and Bill O’Reilly accuser Wendy Walsh want to make sure Ofcom is aware of the culture they believe exists at Fox News Channel.
“Fox News is getting record ratings… so I’m not worried at all,” Murdoch told the BBC on Monday.
Fox News has lost it’s biggest star, O’Reilly, founding CEO Roger Ailes and co-president Bill Shine within the last year amid sexual harassment allegations. However, Murdoch has a point about the network’s ratings as FNC finished April as the most-watched channel in all of cable.
Fox News averaged 2.4 million primetime viewers to finish atop the category for the third straight month. TNT’s NBA-playoff heavy schedule finished second, averaging 1.8 million viewers between 8-11 p.m. MSNBC, HGTV and ESPN round out the top five.
Among total day viewers, Fox News also finished No. 1 for the tenth straight month, averaging 1.5 million viewers compared to 1.1 million for second place Nickelodeon.
The deal between Fox and Sky was cleared by the European Commission last month but remains a sensitive subject after a previous attempt in 2011 was blocked by a phone hacking scandal at one of the Murdoch family’s British newspapers. The scandal revealed close ties between politicians, police and the employees of the paper.
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