The Fox News Channel is the most-watched television news and opinion channel in the United States. Created in 1996 by Australian-born media magnate Rupert Murdoch, the conservative channel is responsible for roughly 70% of its parent company's profits before taxes.
The channel is a wholly owned subsidiary of Fox (FOXA +0.12%)(FOX -0.08%). Read on to learn more about the company, including its history and leadership, to find out who owns Fox News.
NASDAQ: FOXA
Key Data Points
NASDAQ: FOX
Key Data Points
What is Fox News?
Founded in 1996, Fox News Channel is a relative newcomer to the broadcast news wars. Yet, every year since 2002, the 24/7 news organization has been the most-watched television news channel.
The network began with 17 million cable subscribers; it reported 72 million subscribers in 2023. By 2025, Fox News was averaging a total of 3.3 million viewers every day. Fox News has continued to expand its reach. The channel is available in more than 40 countries, including Austria, Germany, Indonesia, Mexico, Japan, South Africa, and Spain.
The bad news for investors is that you can't buy its stock directly. You can, however, buy stock in Fox, its parent company, whose brands include FOX News Media, FOX Sports, FOX Entertainment, FOX Television Stations, and Tubi Media Group.
Who are the largest shareholders?
The Fox News Channel has been part of Fox since 2019, when it was spun off into a new company formed after the sale of 21st Century Fox to Walt Disney (DIS +0.75%). The initial public offering (IPO) was the largest ever for a U.S. media company.
Shareholder
Unlike most publicly traded companies, Fox is largely controlled by a single family. A trust operated by the Murdoch family and corporate insiders holds approximately 40% of all shares, giving the family control of the corporation. Fox has a dual-share system, with limited voting Class A shares and voting Class B shares.
Individuals
Individual family members with shares in the network include:
- Rupert Murdoch is the founder and owner of News Corp (NWSA +0.49%)(NWS +0.37%), one of the world's largest news organizations. The company owns newspapers and television channels in Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. It's separate from Fox, which operates Fox News. Murdoch, 93, stepped down as chairman of both Fox and News Corp in September 2023.
- Lachlan Murdoch is the oldest son of Rupert Murdoch. He worked in a number of different positions for News Corp before leaving in 2005 to launch an investment firm. He returned to the company in 2014 and was named chief executive of 21st Century Fox. The younger Murdoch became executive chairman and CEO of Fox in 2019 and chairman of News Corp when his father retired.
- Elisabeth Murdoch is the elder Murdoch's youngest child from his second marriage. She is a film producer who founded media and entertainment company Shine Group in 2001; it was sold to 21st Century Fox in 2011. She is a co-founder and executive chairman of Sister, a television and film production and development company.
- James Murdoch is the elder Murdoch's youngest son from his second marriage. He was named CEO of the British newspaper division of News Corp in 2007 but resigned in 2012 as part of the fallout from a phone hacking scandal. He was CEO of 21st Century Fox from 2015 until 2019, when the company was sold to Disney. He resigned from the News Corp board in 2020 over disagreements with the direction of the company's news outlets.
Institutional investors
Institutional investors own a little more than 54% of Fox shares, with 10 accounting for almost one-third of the outstanding total. They include:
- Vanguard Group: 17.65 million shares worth $1.06 billion (7.49% of total shares)
- BlackRock (BLK -0.15%): 11.2 million shares worth $434.6 million (5.7%)
- State Street (STT -0.13%): 10.8 million shares worth $651 million (4.59%)
- Dodge & Cox: 7.3 million shares worth $440 million (3.1%)
- State of Wisconsin Investment Board: 6.4 million shares worth $389 million (2.74%)
- Yacktman Asset Management: 5.8 million shares worth $349 million (2.46%)
- Independent Franchise Partners: 5.21 million shares worth $313 million (2.21%)
- Geode Capital Management: 3.44 million shares worth $207 million (1.46%)
- Norges Bank Investment Management: 2.87 million shares worth $172 million (1.22%)
- Dimensional Fund Advisors LP: 2.75 million shares worth $165 million (1.17%)
Who is on the board of directors for Fox News?
The following seven individuals serve on the board of directors for Fox.
Board of Directors
Name | Title | Year elected to board |
|---|---|---|
Lachlan Murdoch | Executive Chair and CEO of Fox News | 2002 |
Tony Abbot | Former Prime Minister of Australia | 2023 |
William Burck | Global Co-Managing Partner of the law firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, LLP | 2021 |
Chase Carey | Former CEO of Formula 1 Racing | 2019 |
Roland Hernandez | CEO of Hernandez Media Ventures | 2019 |
Margaret "Peggy" Johnson | Former CEO of Magic Leap, Inc | 2023 |
Paul Ryan | Former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives | 2019 |
How to invest in Fox News
To buy shares of Fox, you'll need a brokerage account. If you still need to open one, these are some of the best-rated brokers and trading platforms. Here's a step-by-step guide to buying Fox stock:
- Open your brokerage account: Log in to your brokerage account where you handle your investments.
- Search for the stock: Enter the ticker or company name into the search bar to bring up the stock's trading page.
- Decide how many shares to buy: Consider your investment goals and how much of your portfolio you want to allocate to this stock.
- Select order type: Choose between a market order to buy at the current price or a limit order to specify the maximum price you're willing to pay.
- Submit your order: Confirm the details and submit your buy order.
- Review your purchase: Check your portfolio to ensure your order was filled as expected and adjust your investment strategy accordingly.
Before you hit the "Place Order" button, figure out your budget. Are you in a position to invest in the market? Have you paid down high-interest credit card balances and created an emergency fund? How much can you spend? Do you want to buy all your Fox shares at once or periodically through dollar-cost averaging? These are all very good questions for any investor to ask -- and answer.
Next, do your homework. You may want to skip Fox stock if:
- You believe television news will continue to decline as an information source.
- You doubt the ability of a second generation of Murdochs to succeed.
- You think Fox shares are trading at unrealistically high prices.
- Your portfolio already has enough media stocks.
- You have concerns with the way Fox News reports stories and operates.
On the other hand, you may want to go ahead and buy Fox stock if:
- You think it's important to have a conservative news channel.
- You think television news will continue to be a major source of information.
- You'd like to balance your portfolio with a media stock.
- You think Fox stock is undervalued.
As with any other investment, there's a short answer to why you might consider investing in this stock: It depends. Factors that might affect your decision include the level of your portfolio diversification, personal risk tolerance, company and industry knowledge, and assessment of Fox's competitive position.
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The bottom line on Fox News
The media landscape has been extremely unsettled for more than two decades; witness the chaos sparked by mergers and acquisitions such as the AOL-Time Warner merger (2000), News Corp's acquisition of Dow Jones (2007), Comcast's (CMCSA +0.41%) purchase of NBC Universal (2009), Jeff Bezos' purchase of The Washington Post (2013), the CBS Corp.-Viacom merger (2019), or the New Media Investment Group's acquisition of Gannett (NYSE:GCI) (2019).
Unlike many media companies, Fox News' ownership is relatively stable, and the division of media into print properties owned by News Corp and broadcast holdings managed by Fox may insulate investors from downturns in either segment.
The media industry has been changing rapidly, though, and even stable ownership is unlikely to insulate a company from the ups and downs of a changing landscape. Investors would be wise to prepare for continued volatility, even in a family-controlled business like Fox.
