Murdoch Says No Substantive NFL Talks as Fox Adds Games
Lachlan Murdoch said Fox has had no substantive talks with the NFL about renegotiating or extending the current deals, even as murdoch’s sports business keeps leaning on football. He said Fox still has four years left on the contract and wants to broaden the relationship in a disciplined way.
Lachlan Murdoch and the NFL
"There is no tension, really, with the NFL," Murdoch said on an earnings call. He added, "We were partners for 30 years, we were looking forward to being partners for the next 30 years."
"We’ve read the speculation that the NFL would like to renegotiate and extend the current deals that are in the marketplace, but we’ve had no substantive discussions with the NFL about that," he said. The direct message cuts against market talk that Fox might already be working to reset one of the league’s most valuable broadcast relationships.
Fox’s NFL reliance shows up in the numbers. Murdoch said earlier in the quarter that the company concluded a strong season with over 170 million viewers tuning into regular season NFL games on Fox during the 2025-26 season, and the NFC Championship game averaged more than 46 million viewers.
Two More Games in Munich
On Monday, said it acquired the rights to two more NFL games for next season, including one game in Munich, Germany. That is a concrete addition to the schedule while the wider rights picture stays unchanged, and it gives Fox one more international date to sell to advertisers and distributors.
Fox inked an 11-year media rights deal in 2023, and that agreement is subject to the league’s one-time termination right after the 2029 season. Those terms leave the company with time on the clock, but they also keep the deal tied to a future league decision that could alter the economics after 2029.
Fox Revenue and Rights Pressure
said advertising revenue fell to $1.56 billion from $2.04 billion in the comparable quarter last year, which included Super Bowl LIX on Fox. NBC televised the Super Bowl this year, so the year-over-year drop reflects a tougher comparison as well as the absence of that event.
Fox Corp. was formed after the $71.3 billion sale of most 21st Century Fox assets to Disney in 2019, and its media assets now include, Tubi and Fox One. With Amazon, Netflix and YouTube also pursuing more NFL games, the league remains the most important lever Fox can pull when it wants to protect sports reach and ad pricing.
Murdoch’s read is straightforward: Fox is not in urgent renegotiation mode, but it is not standing still either. The company has four years left on its current deal, two more games to sell next season, and a clear incentive to keep the league close without paying ahead of the market.
