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Advertisers are flocking to Fox News to reach “an audience of one”, according to the network’s head of ad sales, as companies, advocacy groups and foreign leaders try to lobby US President Donald Trump through his television screen.
Fox News has recorded a boom in advertising revenues this year on the back of record audience numbers, backed by an unexpected boost from political advertising. While this typically falls away after an election, Fox has found that political and advocacy advertising has increased as groups seek to influence the White House.
“News has always attracted advertisers that are trying to reach influential folks, but I think a lot of folks are aware that the president and a lot of the folks in his administration are watching the [Fox News] network”, Fox Corp ad sales president Jeff Collins said in an interview with the Financial Times.
“We’re seeing a lot of advertiser demand that are coming in for that audience.”
Trump is known to be a regular viewer of Fox, which has also served as a conveyor belt for people entering his administration.
Fox has had Trump’s ear in big policy decisions this year. When JPMorgan chief executive Jamie Dimon appeared on Maria Bartiromo’s Fox show in April warning that Trump’s tariffs would probably trigger a recession, it caught the president’s attention.
Trump mentioned the interview several times that day in public appearances and posted about it on his Truth Social platform. Later, he announced a 90-day pause on tariffs with all trading partners except China.
“There are so many issues now that are up for debate,” Collins said, citing areas such as healthcare and technology.
“We’ve seen political advertising and advocacy advertising. We’ve seen other nations coming on to advertise across the Fox News portfolio. I can’t speak to who they’re specifically trying to reach, but one would assume that it would be the president, as well as his circle of advisers that are forming policy.”
He declined to comment on specific advertisers, although the government of Ontario launched a prominent campaign in the US positioning itself as an “ally to the north” following Trump’s threat of tariffs on Canadian goods.
Other groups that have recently aired adverts on Fox News include the Department of Homeland Security and advocacy groups such as American Edge Project — a tech lobbying group backed by Meta, the clean lobbying group Protect Our Jobs, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, and the Coalition to Strengthen America’s Healthcare.
Fox News has been the most-watched TV channel in the US this summer, averaging more than 3mn viewers during the “primetime” 8pm to 11pm hours, according to Nielsen data.
“You’re seeing advertisers that are coming on in because of the overall strength of those audiences,” says Collins.
The network is closing its latest “upfronts” — when advertisers commit billions of dollars in annual spending for TV — which it says will be ahead of last year.
Collins said negotiations around this year’s upfronts had been “very strong” and that Fox had seen “no impact” from the anxiety generated by Trump’s tariffs.
“Heading into this year’s upfront there was a bit of uncertainty given the threat of tariffs and how that could impact advertisers willing to commit [money]. We have seen no impact of that,” said Collins. “All indications are that it’s going to be very strong for Fox properties in the upfront.”
Fox has raised its rates for advertising as a result, he said, with an increase in advertising inventory being outpaced by demand.
The rosy outlook for Fox contrasts sharply with the collapse in the wider traditional TV landscape, validating Rupert Murdoch’s 2019 move to sell most of his media empire, trimming his assets to sports and news.
Collins added that advertisers were attracted by a 26 per cent increase in viewership across Fox’s portfolio last year — including Tubi, the on-demand streaming service. Sports coverage had also proven to be a “juggernaut”, he added, pointing to a record Super Bowl alongside NFL, Major League Baseball and Nascar.
Fox chief executive Lachlan Murdoch has touted an influx of blue-chip advertisers to Fox News in recent months, as the channel’s audiences have swelled during Trump’s second term. More than 200 advertisers have come to the network since the election, including the likes of Amazon, Netflix and JPMorgan Chase.
“Because of the election results, many advertisers have sort of rethought their positioning in this country and understand that the Fox News viewer really does represent middle America — and they’re responding with their cheque books,” Murdoch said in March.
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