Fox News reaps benefits of Donald Trump victory

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Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News has captured nearly three-quarters of all US cable news audiences in the aftermath of Donald Trump’s election victory, as liberal Americans tune out of the former reality star’s transition to a second term in office.

Fox’s daily audiences have surged 40 per cent since the November 5 vote, while viewership of the more left-leaning MSNBC and CNN have dropped 38 per cent and 27 per cent respectively, according to Nielsen figures.

Trump’s 2016 election win and chaotic first presidency spurred a boom across news networks and organisations. This time around, the potential for a “Trump bump” appears more nuanced.

However, one clear and early beneficiary is Fox News, the cable channel Murdoch founded in 1996, where audiences have flocked in recent weeks.

Fox News averaged 2mn viewers a day from November 6 to November 22, up from 1.4mn for the year through November 4, according to Nielsen. Over the same period, MSNBC drew 526,000 viewers each day, down from 847,000 before November 5. CNN’s audience dwindled to 366,000 a day in that time, down from an average of 503,000 before the election. 

During “primetime” evening hours in the weeks since the election, 73 per cent of the total cable news audience was watching Fox, while 16 per cent tuned into MSNBC and 11 per cent to CNN.

The outlook for the wider cable television universe is grim, as audiences shift towards online streaming. But Fox’s ability to buck the industry malaise has sent its stock up nearly 60 per cent this year. Fox chief executive Lachlan Murdoch this month said it had been a “record” quarter for the company’s political revenue.

MSNBC and CNN benefited from Trump’s first administration, successfully positioning themselves as networks of resistance against the president.

But early signs suggest these channels will not enjoy a similar boost again. Ratings have sagged even as Trump’s flurry of cabinet nominations have kept the news cycle busy.

US media conglomerate Comcast last week revealed plans to spin off MSNBC and its other cable channels into a separate company — an implicit admission of the accelerating decline of the medium.

Podcasters and non-traditional media voices have been another early winner of the new Trump era, after the former president flooded the digital airwaves this year with interviews on YouTube chat shows that attract large male audiences.

Donald Trump Jr, the president-elect’s son, on Monday hinted his father might look to elevate these new media stars in the White House press room, while sidelining the traditional news groups that Trump has consistently attacked as “the enemy”.

“We were talking about the podcast world and some of our friends and [Joe] Rogan . . . Given how the media has behaved . . . we had the conversation about opening up the press room to a lot of these independent journalists”, Trump Jr said on his podcast on Monday.

“So that may be in the works. That’s going to blow up some heads. So we’ll see.”