The elder Murdoch, 86, is viewed as more politically in line with O’Reilly, a famously combative champion of the right-wing, than his son James. The 44-year-old CEO and his wife Kathryn founded Quadrivium, an organization focused on promoting science, equal opportunities and environmental issues.
One of Fox’s biggest investments since he took over as CEO was a $725 million investment in National Geographic, acquiring its TV channels and magazine, and doubling the society’s resources for investments in science, research and education. James views the National Geographic network, with its emphasis on nature and ecology, as an ideological counterweight to Fox News, where climate-change deniers are regularly featured, a person with knowledge of his thinking said.
Fox executives aren’t prejudging the outcome of the Paul Weiss investigation into O’Reilly’s actions, and all three Murdochs will reach a consensus about what to do when the probe concludes, said another person, who asked not to be identified discussing private information. Fox News and O’Reilly’s attorney Mark Fabiani have said the anchor will return when his vacation ends.
The key risk for investors, Wieser said, is any impact on the ability of Fox to complete its acquisition of London-based Sky, which is being reviewed by regulators. The U.K. has strict standards that require any owner of a broadcaster to pass certain thresholds to be considered “fit and proper” to hold a license. While accusations of discrimination at a company would not be enough to fail such a test, regulators could be concerned about an by U.S. federal prosecutors into Fox’s disclosures of legal settlements, said Claire Enders, founder of researcher Enders Analysis.
As a young CEO, James Murdoch should also be concerned about the aging demographic of the Fox News audience.
“Its extraordinarily important for someone of that age to move towards businesses that you can really manage in a more conventional way, which are also more global businesses,” Enders said in a telephone interview. “One of his top concerns in pursuing the Sky transaction is to diminish the company’s dependence on Fox News.”
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.