- Fox Corp. tumbled as much as 6% on Thursday as President Donald Trump retweeted support for its rival right-leaning news networks Newsmax and OANN.
- Trump and his supporters have been irritated by Fox News ever since the network called the state of Arizona for President-elect Joe Biden on the night of the presidential election.
- And with a Biden presidency slated for 2021, Trump could have his eyes set on creating his own news network to directly compete with Fox, according to Axios.
- “@FoxNews daytime ratings have completely collapsed. Weekend daytime even WORSE. Very sad to watch this happen, but they forgot what made them successful, what got them there…” Trump tweeted on Thursday.
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Class A shares of Fox News parent company Fox Corp. dropped as much as 6% on Thursday as President Donald Trump retweeted support for its rival right-leaning news networks Newsmax and OANN.
Some of Trump’s Thursday retweets include: “#FoxNews is dead,” “Fox has been completely unfair and untruthful. Moving to Newsmax,” and “Newsmax and Oann are great alternatives [to Fox News].”
Those retweets were then followed up by a direct message from Trump, who tweeted, “.@FoxNews daytime ratings have completely collapsed. Weekend daytime even WORSE. Very sad to watch this happen, but they forgot what made them successful, what got them there. They forgot the Golden Goose. The biggest difference between the 2016 Election, and 2020, was @FoxNews!”
Trump and his most devoted supporters have been especially irritated by Fox News ever since the network called the state of Arizona for President-elect Joe Biden on the night of the presidential election.
Fox News pointed to statistics contradicting Trump’s claim of a ratings collapse, citing viewership that’s up 57% on a year-over-year basis, according to Nielsen Media Research.
Also potentially weighing down shares of Fox Corp. on Thursday could be a report that said Trump is interested in directly competing with Fox News by launching his own conservative-friendly news network once he leaves office.
"He plans to wreck Fox. No doubt about it," a source with detailed knowledge of Trump's intentions told Axios.
According to Axios, Trump's potential news network would likely be a digital media channel that would stream online as opposed to a news network carried by cable providers.
This strategy would allow Trump to launch the network quicker and with lower start-up costs. The network would likely charge a monthly fee, with the goal to siphon away customers from Fox Nation, Fox Corps' $5.99 per month news streaming service.
Class A shares of Fox Corp. are down as much as 12% from their election day peak of $29.28 as of Thursday afternoon.
