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🚨EXCLUSIVE 🚨: Rupert Murdoch's Fox rocked by one of the biggest financial penalties in TV history after an arbitrator concludes top execs gave false testimony to cover up a "reprehensible" fraud. And there's MUCH more... hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/fox-ro…
One day after an appeals court blesses the vertical integration between AT&T and Time Warner, the exec producers & stars of "Bones" go to court to affirm a $179 MILLION award imposed because Fox's studio arm was cutting sweetheart deals with Fox's distribution arms.
The arbitrator's decision has the potential to upend the economics of streaming hit shows, and in particular, leaves Hulu's fate greatly uncertain. 
In this $179 million decision against Fox, the arbitrator finds "shocking" evidence of unfair dealing when it comes to Hulu. "The obvious inferences of self- dealing, conflict of interest and the lack of any arm's length negotiations leap off the page," he writes.
Did Fox buy off a witness to cover up fraud? Take Peter Liguori, who resigned as CEO at Tribune Media in 2017. Unbeknownst to everyone, FX gave a guy with only 1 movie credit to his name a deal "most producers in Hollywood have strived to have their entire entertainment career."
On a day that Michael Cohen is testifying in Congress about his participation or complicity in crimes comes word that top Fox execs — many headed to Disney — were accomplices to fraud. This will go down in the annals of industry...
In all my time writing for @THR, I have never ever encountered a decision as jaw-dropping as this one. #mustread hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/fox-ro…
And oh, I have another big story coming about Fox soon. It involves Netflix. Stay tuned.
