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Just when you thought I had beaten my Rudy Giuliani/The Masked Singer jokes, Rupert Murdoch and the Murdoch Family Trust had to go and give it just a smidge of reality. Reports are that Murdoch is officially exploring what many felt had already been going on on-screen over the past few years, a re-combination of Fox Corp and News Corp. As of this afternoon, the latter’s board confirmed that a special committee “composed of independent and disinterested members of the Board” had been formed to explore the possibility. “The Special Committee, consistent with its fiduciary duties and in consultation with its independent financial and legal advisors, will thoroughly evaluate a potential combination with Fox,” said News Corp. in a statement. “The Special Committee has not made any determination with respect to any such potential combination at this time, and there can be no certainty that the Company will engage in such a transaction.”
Its been close to ten years since the two companies were split, with the Wall Street Journal & Dow Jones folded under the News Corp. banner and film & television folded under 21st Century Fox (most of which was sold to Disney for $71.3 billion in that 2019 headline-grabbing deal). Three big factors that Fox Corp. has going for it are FOX “News” (a ratings and ad revenue machine), FOX Sports (which scores big with its NFL ratings as well as its rights to college football and the World Cup), and a pretty strong cache of local television stations. While combining the two may make sense on the Murdoch sign of things, you can’t help but wonder when (and not if) we’ll begin seeing more & more content being subjected to “FOX “News”-ification.” But if you plan on holding your breath for updates, let us know who we should call to administer your last rites because neither News Corp. nor the special committee will offer any further updates until the committee “deems further disclosure is appropriate or required.” So be careful, Nick Cannon. Just sayin’…
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