For Fox CEO Murdoch, There Is Such a Thing as Too Much Football
For Fox CEO Murdoch, There Is Such a Thing as Too Much Football
(Bloomberg) -- Colin Kaepernick-inspired protests aren’t why fans are tuning out. There is just too much football to watch.
That’s the view of James Murdoch, chief executive officer of 21st Century Fox Inc. The swelling number of televised games has diluted ratings, he said Tuesday at an investor conference in New York.
“Our concern is simply that there’s just a lot of football,” Murdoch said.
His view coincides with that of Leslie Moonves, CEO of rival CBS. At this time last year, Moonves suggested a proliferation of games may be saturating the market. More recently, CBS Sports Chairman Sean McManus was reported to blame the 10 games added to Thursday nights, and two additional London games, for diluting Sunday afternoon ratings.
The quandary is that the league remains one of the best ways for advertisers to reach a mass audience and the best platform, some network executives say, for promoting new shows.
To contact the reporter on this story: Anousha Sakoui in Los Angeles at asakoui@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Crayton Harrison at tharrison5@bloomberg.net, Bruce Rule, Rob Golum
©2017 Bloomberg L.P.