FACT BRIEF

Is it true that Fox News is not financially dependent on Google ad revenue?

Saturday, June 20, 2020

By Maxwell Craig

Copy link

Copy featured image

YES

Fox News derives robust revenues and profits as the highest-rated cable news network in the U.S. Along with a sports channel, it comprises Fox Corp.'s cable networks group, which earns nearly 70% of its $5.4 billion in annual revenue from "affiliate fees" paid by cable and satellite operators for the right to offer Fox programming. Most of the rest, about $1.2 billion, comes from advertising on television. A market-research forecast cited by Variety, an entertainment-industry publication, projects Fox News Channel will sell about $1.16 billion in advertising in 2020.

Thus, relatively little revenue comes from online advertising, although user statistics show Fox ahead of its competitors online as well as on air. Online news providers with less robust brands and offline audiences are more dependent on revenue earned by working with Google's ad network.

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.

Sources

Business Wire: Fox News marks 18th consecutive year as no. 1 cable news network

Fox Corp.: 2019 Annual Report

Variety: Fox News TV advertising outlook and impact of Tucker Carlson

Fox News: Digital audience gains in May

Marketwatch: Google, Facebook and Amazon revenue outlook for 2020

ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTOR

Gigafact

Between 2020 and 2022, under close editorial supervision, Gigafact contracted a group of freelance writers and editors to test the concepts for fact briefs and provide inputs to our software development process. We call this effort Gigafact Foundry. Over the course of these two years, Gigafact Foundry writers published over 1500 fact briefs in response to claims they found online. Their important work forms the basis of Gigafact formats and editorial guidelines, and is available to the public on Gigafact.org. Readers should be aware that while there is still a lot of relevant information to be found, not all fact briefs produced by Gigafact Foundry reflect Gigafact's current methods and standards for fact briefs. If you come across any that you feel are out of date and need to be looked at with fresh eyes, don't hesitate to contact us at support@gigafact.org.

FACT BRIEF BY

Latest fact briefs

About fact briefs published on Gigafact

Fact briefs are short, credibly sourced summaries that offer “yes/no” answers in response to claims found online. They rely on publicly available, often primary source data and documents. Fact briefs are created by contributors to Gigafact —a nonprofit project looking to expand participation in fact-checking and protect the democratic process. See all fact briefs here.