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Morning Edition

September 12, 2025

Earlier this week, Lachlan Murdoch secured his position at the head of Fox. He has since strongly backed the company’s sports approach—at a critical time, with a few key rights deals soon up for negotiation.

— Eric Fisher [[link removed]], David Rumsey [[link removed]], and Colin Salao [[link removed]]

Lachlan Murdoch on Fox’s Sports Strategy, FanDuel Plans [[link removed]]

Ron Chenoy-Imagn Images

Fox CEO and executive chair Lachlan Murdoch, making his first appearance since resolving an extended intrafamily dispute [[link removed]], said the resolution strongly affirms the current company strategy, which is based significantly on its presence in live sports.

Speaking this week at a Goldman Sachs conference, Murdoch said the complex settlement that keeps him in place leading the family empire and pays three siblings for their interests will be a boon for investors and sports fans.

“It’s great news for investors. It gives us a clarity about our strategy going forward,” Murdoch said. “It ensures that our strategy will be consistent, it’s clear, and it’s very sustainable. … We can be very focused on returning capital to investors, driving our profitability, and really importantly, investing in our core brands and especially in our great journalism. So we are very pleased to be able to move forward and remain focused on the path that we’re on.”

One of those intact areas of focus is a growing streaming strategy based in large part on the recently introduced Fox One service [[link removed]]. That offering will be bundled [[link removed]] with ESPN’s separate direct-to-consumer service [[link removed]] beginning in October, and Murdoch specifically touted that plan in his conference remarks, calling it vital for fans.

“We think it will be an essential bundle, the essential sports bundle for fans in America,” he said.

Just three weeks into the debut of Fox One, Murdoch said it was too soon to draw conclusions about its market performance, but he said early consumer response was encouraging. Fox One leans heavily on the network’s sports portfolio, including coverage of the NFL, college football, and MLB, among others.

“[Initial] take-up has exceeded our expectations,” he said. “What you can see on Fox One is that news is really helping drive audience and reach Monday-to-Friday, but then with sports, starting with college football and now with the NFL, gives a tremendous audience and viewership and acquisition capabilities over the weekend. So the balance between news and sports, and there’s a lot of overlap in those audiences, has been very successful.”

With Murdoch remaining at the helm of Fox, the company also has a series of key sports rights deals expiring in the coming years, including with FIFA, MLB, the NFL, and Big Ten.

Sportsbook Option

Meanwhile, Murdoch reiterated Fox’s plan to exercise an option to acquire 18.6% of FanDuel, the largest U.S. sportsbook, expiring in 2030. That option currently carries below-market pricing as the exercise price set in 2020 was based on a $20 billion valuation for all of FanDuel, plus 5% annual escalators. FanDuel, however, has grown by more than half since then, as it was valued at $31 billion [[link removed]] in July when parent company Flutter took full control.

Exercising the option will require Fox to be licensed with regulators in the jurisdictions where FanDuel operates.

“We think they’re tremendous investments,” Murdoch said of FanDuel and Flutter. “We are very committed to them. And we are committed to becoming a licensed company so that we can exercise that option. … The resolution of the control of the company through the family trust actually will make that licensing process much more simple. So we think that’s an important step as well.”

EVENT

The biggest names in sports media will be at Tuned In [[link removed]], presented by Elevate, Sept. 16 in NYC.

The roster includes Adam Silver, Rob Manfred, Kim Ng, Jimmy Pitaro, Maria Taylor, Ian and Noah Eagle, Jay Marine, Eric Shanks, Luis Silberwasser, a debate between Stephen A. Smith and Clay Travis, and more.

Don’t miss your chance to be in the room for these newsmaking conversations. Claim your seat [[link removed]].

Eagles-Chiefs Super Bowl Rematch Could Set More NFL Ratings Records [[link removed]]

Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

The stage is set for another massive NFL weekend, as the league has put itself in prime position to attract a potentially record-setting TV audience for Sunday afternoon’s Eagles-Chiefs Super Bowl LIX rematch.

After Week 1 viewership was up across the board [[link removed]], Fox’s broadcast of Philadelphia–Kansas City will be nationally televised to 100% of the country at 4:25 p.m. ET, with just two other games on CBS taking place in the same window (4:05 p.m. ET), Broncos-Colts and Panthers-Cardinals. Meanwhile, the network’s weekly pregame show, Fox NFL Sunday, is venturing away from its Los Angeles studio to broadcast live from Kansas City.

The Chiefs and Eagles know a little something about drawing big TV ratings. Each of their two Super Bowl matchups has drawn record viewership, with February’s game being watched by 127.7 million viewers [[link removed]].

In 2023, their rematch of Super Bowl LVII was the most-watched Monday Night Football game in 27 years, pulling in more than 29 million viewers across ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, and streaming platforms.

Last year, the Chiefs were featured in four of the ten most-watched games of the regular season. The Eagles helped draw 28.3 million viewers [[link removed]] against the Cowboys for this year’s kickoff game, despite a 65-minute weather delay. Before the game paused, it was on pace to average 31.6 million viewers and easily surpass last year’s milestone of 29.2 million for Ravens-Chiefs.

For Sunday’s matchup, the number to beat will be 27.87 million viewers—the audience for Chiefs-Bengals on CBS a year ago, which marked the largest Week 2 NFL rating since at least 1990.

FRONT OFFICE SPORTS NETWORK

Inside Ohio State’s $18M NIL Game Plan

Ohio State athletic director Ross Bjork joins Adam Breneman for a candid, wide-ranging conversation on leading one of the biggest brands in college sports.

The episode digs into his overlap with Gene Smith and the simple advice that set the tone, the confidential process behind landing the Ohio State job, and first impressions of Ryan Day’s leadership and locker-room culture.

Bjork explains Ohio State’s approach to revenue-sharing and NIL (name, image, and likeness), including how they allocated $18 million across sports, why the next arms race is building the NIL infrastructure itself, and how donor strategy and facilities now balance performance, recovery, and revenue generation. He also shares his view on the future of governance in college athletics, the College Sports Commission, potential federal legislation, and what smart playoff expansion could look like.

Watch the full Next Up episode here [[link removed]].

Silver Says Free Highlights Are an Issue As NBA Begins $77B Deal [[link removed]]

Cary Edmondson-Imagn Images

The NBA has faced criticism [[link removed]] over its national broadcast schedule this upcoming season, the first under a new media-rights deal [[link removed]].

While the league has added 75 more national games [[link removed]] for the 2025–26 season, additional broadcast partners have made it more complicated—and expensive—for fans to watch all of the league’s national games.

At a press conference following Wednesday’s NBA Board of Governors meeting, commissioner Adam Silver was asked how much he considers the high barrier to entry to watch games as it applies to the next generation of NBA fans.

Silver said that the league thinks “a lot about it.”

“We know we have mass appeal on a global basis. We’re literally reaching billions of people and we don’t want to disenfranchise people by working with partners that are creating price points that make it inaccessible to them,” Silver said in response to The New York Times.

The Times published a guest essay [[link removed]] by former ESPN writer Joon Lee in June entitled “$4,785. That’s How Much It Costs to Be a Sports Fan Now.” The story calculated the costs needed for fans to follow their favorite team—including subscriptions, merchandise, and tickets.

Silver said he views sports consumption differently because “most people can only consume so many games.” However, he also said that the league has to weigh its partnerships alongside the “ongoing issue” of fans consuming NBA content for free on social media platforms. He referred to basketball as a “highlights-based sport.”

“Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, you name it … there’s an enormous amount of content out there,” Silver said.

Silver’s comments are striking given the NBA’s embrace of social media as an avenue for fans to consume its content. The league achieved a record 124 billion views on social platforms in the 2024–25 season, up 67% from the previous year, according to Videocites.

However, monetizing social media engagement is more complicated than linear television and streaming viewership. The league’s 11-year, $77 billion media deal, which starts this upcoming season, is worth about 2.6 times as much annually as its previous deal even as ratings have been stagnant, or even dipped slightly [[link removed]].

The NBA will air national games through three domestic partners: ESPN, NBCUniversal, and Amazon Prime Video. Games will be on over-the-air networks through ABC and NBC, on cable TV via ESPN, and on streaming through Peacock and Prime Video. ESPN’s direct-to-consumer streaming product will also include games from that network.

The league’s first exclusively streamed games will start this season, including weekly games (Mondays on Peacock and Thursdays on Prime Video).

SPONSORED BY HOKA

Running Toward an Inclusive Future

Cal Calamia isn’t just running races— they’re redefining them [[link removed]]. The 29-year-old marathoner has become the first athlete to compete in the non-binary division across all six World Marathon Majors, landing on the podium each time and setting a personal best of 2:41 in Berlin.

Calamia’s mission goes further than medals, leading the movement to make non-binary categories standard across the sport and proving excellence—not just inclusion—should be the bar. Now preparing for their fifth Chicago Marathon, Calamia continues to balance advocacy, storytelling, and elite performance, all while lacing up in HOKA’s Rocket X 3 [[link removed]].

Read the full story [[link removed]] in our interview with Cal, presented by HOKA.

ONE BIG FIG NFL Ratings Boom

Democrat and Chronicle

22.3 million

The NFL’s final average Week 1 viewership, up 5% from last year and representing the highest opening-week audience in league history. The total came from historic audiences nearly across the board among league rights holders, including for the kickoff game on NBC [[link removed]] last week, for CBS and Fox [[link removed]] on Sunday, and then for ESPN [[link removed]] on Monday.

There was still some snark in the NFL viewership story, though, as Fox Sports president of insights and analytics Mike Mulvihill tweeted [[link removed]] that the league’s total reach figure for Week 1, with the exception of YouTube for its game last Friday, surpassed 100 million, up 21% from a year ago. YouTube’s use of a non-accredited measurement [[link removed]] from Nielsen drew rebukes from other networks [[link removed]], including at Fox. “Had [the Friday game from Brazil] been rated properly, we would be able to see how many unique viewers YT brought to Week 1,” Mulvihill wrote. “Would be a useful thing to know!”

Conversation Starters Tech YouTuber Marques Brownlee explained how NFL helmets feature a hidden speaker and microphone for quarterbacks to communicate with their coaches. Watch it here [[link removed]]. Nick Raquet quit baseball in 2019 and started working in finance. He started playing baseball again after his girlfriend told him she was “sick” of him complaining about his job. On Monday, he made his MLB debut with the Cardinals. Check it out [[link removed]]. Take a look [[link removed]] at some of Amazon Prime Video’s new AI-powered features for Thursday Night Football this season. Editors’ Picks House Republicans Delay SCORE Act Vote Tentatively Planned for Next Week [[link removed]]by Amanda Christovich [[link removed]]They didn’t believe they had enough votes to pass the bill. Democratic Women’s Caucus Urges WNBA to End CBA Stalemate [[link removed]]by Annie Costabile [[link removed]]The league and WNBPA must reach an agreement by Oct. 31. CVC Builds Out Sports Division Amid Crowded PE Market [[link removed]]by Ben Horney [[link removed]]The firm’s sports portfolio is reportedly worth $13.6 billion. Question of the Day

Are you planning to watch Eagles-Chiefs on Sunday?

YES [[link removed]] NO [[link removed]]

Thursday’s result: 42% of respondents are more likely to watch this week’s PGA Tour and DP World Tour events due to the inclusion of more Ryder Cup players.

Advertise [[link removed]] Awards [[link removed]] Learning [[link removed]] Events [[link removed]] Video [[link removed]] Shows [[link removed]] Written by Eric Fisher [[link removed]], David Rumsey [[link removed]], Colin Salao [[link removed]] Edited by Or Moyal [[link removed]], Catherine Chen [[link removed]]

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