Lachlan Murdoch now controls the Murdoch media portfolio after a September 2025 settlement ended years of trust litigation and consolidated voting power over Fox Corporation and News Corp. The agreement, reported at about $3.3 billion and providing $1.1 billion each to siblings Prudence, Elisabeth, and James, closes a succession question that has hung over two of the world’s most influential news and entertainment companies. According to Reuters, the deal followed a Nevada court’s rejection in December 2024 of an earlier attempt to alter the family trust, and Lachlan framed the settlement as “clarity” for investors. The outcome matters well beyond family dynamics: it sets the strategic line for Fox’s streaming push and News Corp’s data and AI licensing agenda that will shape how news and video are produced, distributed, and monetized. Reuters, Reuters
What Lachlan commands: Fox’s streaming pivot and News Corp’s data businesses
Fox Corporation under Lachlan includes Fox News Media, the Fox broadcast network, Fox Sports, and Tubi. News Corp includes Dow Jones (The Wall Street Journal, Barron’s, MarketWatch), the New York Post, The Sun, The Times and The Sunday Times in the UK, plus book publisher HarperCollins and radio brands such as talkSPORT and Times Radio in the UK and local stations across Ireland via Wireless/News Broadcasting. Corporate statements and listings confirm these holdings and operating units. Fox Corporation, News UK
Streaming strategy: FAST at scale, a new subscription bet, and the end of Venu
Fox’s center of gravity in streaming is Tubi, the free ad-supported television (FAST) service. In January 2025 Fox said Tubi surpassed 97 million monthly active users and 10 billion streaming hours in calendar 2024, underscoring AVOD’s momentum with younger, cord-never audiences. Tubi’s ad stack runs on Fox’s AdRise platform, which the company extended across Fox’s portfolio for unified targeting and measurement. Fox Corporation, Fox Corporation
After a planned tri-company live-sports streamer (Venu Sports) was shelved in January 2025 amid legal challenges, Fox moved to develop its own subscription streaming platform for news, sports, and entertainment. In February, Fox tapped former Apple TV+ and Hulu executive Pete Distad to lead the new service under Tubi Media Group CEO Paul Cheesbrough, signaling a complementary dual-track strategy: free, ad-funded scale via Tubi alongside a premium subscription tier. Reuters, Warner Bros. Discovery
That platform shift sits atop Fox’s 2023 creation of Tubi Media Group to consolidate digital operations (including Tubi and the AdRise ad-tech stack). The unit has since expanded into the creator economy—acquiring Red Seat Ventures and striking podcast distribution deals—indicating Fox aims to aggregate creators, live events, and on-demand video within a coherent monetization framework. Fox Corporation, Fox Corporation
News Corp’s AI and subscriptions engine
News Corp’s revenue mix is increasingly digital and data-centric. Dow Jones subscriptions continue to rise: total average subscriptions to consumer products approached 6.3 million in fiscal Q4 2025, with over 4.1 million digital-only Wall Street Journal subscriptions, accounting for 91% of WSJ’s base in the quarter. Reuters reported that digital circulation and Dow Jones growth helped News Corp beat quarterly revenue estimates in August. News Corp IR, Reuters
On AI, News Corp struck one of the industry’s most consequential licensing agreements with OpenAI in May 2024. The multi-year deal grants OpenAI access to current and archived content from properties including the Wall Street Journal and the Times, with the Journal reporting the package could exceed $250 million over five years in cash and credits. The arrangement both monetizes archives for model training and enables controlled display of News Corp content inside ChatGPT, reflecting a pragmatic publisher path in the generative AI era. Reuters Technology
Regulatory and legal overhangs shaping strategy
Fox’s legal exposure from 2020 election coverage persists. In April 2023, Fox resolved Dominion Voting Systems’ defamation case for $787.5 million. A separate $2.7 billion defamation suit by Smartmatic against Fox Corp and Fox News remains active after a New York appeals court in January 2025 allowed key claims to proceed. These proceedings sharpen the company’s risk posture around misinformation, editorial practices, and monetization on digital platforms. Reuters, Reuters
The broader policy climate also matters for Murdoch assets. In January 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a federal law requiring ByteDance to divest TikTok’s U.S. operations or face a ban, reinforcing Washington’s more muscular approach to foreign-owned consumer platforms and data security. For publishers and broadcasters, that decision reinforces two trends: stricter data governance expectations across ad-supported media and intensified competition for short-form attention should TikTok’s reach be curtailed or reshaped. The Washington Post, NPR
UK and Ireland audio footprint: audience diversification beyond print
News UK’s broadcast portfolio—talkSPORT, Times Radio, Virgin Radio UK—and Wireless/News Broadcasting stations across Ireland (including FM104, Q102, Live 95, Cork’s 96FM and C103) extend News Corp’s reach into live audio and sports rights, feeding cross-platform ad products and first-party data strategies that complement print and digital subscriptions. The company’s own descriptions and Irish regulatory filings confirm ownership across these brands. News UK, The Irish Times
What changes now that the succession is settled
With control resolved, expect continuity in three areas. First, Fox will keep scaling Tubi’s audience and ad-tech stack while standing up a complementary subscription offering led by a seasoned streaming operator, creating a barbell model across free and paid video. Second, News Corp will lean into high-value information services (risk and compliance, energy data) and grow digital ARPU at Dow Jones while expanding AI licensing on negotiated terms. Third, both companies are likely to favor asset-light, partnership-driven growth—licensing, creator alliances, FAST channels—over capital-intensive M&A, with legal risk management embedded in editorial and distribution decisions. Reuters, News Corp IR
The near-term watchlist for investors and media operators: performance milestones for Fox’s new subscription streamer; whether Tubi surpasses 100 million MAUs on a sustained basis while improving ad yields; additional AI/data licensing across News Corp titles; and the trajectory of the Smartmatic case. Each will signal how the Murdoch businesses convert settled governance into durable digital economics.
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