Thread by @GoAngelo

1/ There's something incredible in the background during this Dominion trial that is at least as significant (and possibly even more significant) as the trial itself for Fox News' bottom line.

My goodness is this a doozy...

2/ As the trial is happening, Fox News will be renegotiating or gearing up to renegotiate carriage renewal with 3 cable providers -- Xfinity, Chater and Cox.

It's hard to overstate how significant this and how potentially consequential this is for Fox News' future. Here's why...

3/ The dirty secret is that Fox News is the only commercial tv channel that actually doesn't need a single adl. They could have $0 in ad revenue and they'd still have more than a 35% profit margin.

That's cuz Fox is the 2nd most expensive channel on every cable bill (ESPN is #1)

4/ How we got to this point is a story for another day. But here's a thread about this if you're really curious how they got so high. Point is, these carriage fees are really important for Fox News' bottom.

https://twitter.com/GoAngelo/status/1244819790650322944

5/ Now, Fox News is going to renegotiate these deals in with a lot of headwinds. Cable providers tightening belt due to cord cutting, Fox is in barrel PR wise due to Dominion trial and their audience is kind of tepid on them (something Fox need to pressure cable companies).

6/Here's the thing: Fox doesn't just need to renew at the current rate. Oh no. The Murdochs have been promising to extract big increases from cable companies in order to offset ad loses and massively increase profits.

7/ Cable companies already probably pay about 2x market value for Fox News in these fees (which is absurd). But now, Fox is going to go into these meetings...and say not only should cable companies continue overpaying, but that they pay increases of 30-35%.

8/ There are about 90 million cable customers in this country. There are about 3 million regular Fox News viewers. Fox is not only forcing everyone with cable to overpay, but now they will try to pick Americans' pockets even more.

9/ This is a real pivot point for Fox News. A genuine moment of potential accountability. If they are able to renew with the increases they're hoping to get, then well, Fox News will continue to have obscene profits, guaranteed revenue and no reason to change.

But...

10/ If Fox meets resistance and the cable companies don't roll over and force everyone to overpay in order to subsidize Fox News (as they have been doing all these years), then Fox News quite literally can't continue it's current course. It would need to change.

11/ If you want to know what you can do this in moment, I strongly recommend you visit nofoxfee.com

The website tells you how to contact the current providers talking to Fox and what to say.

12/ Your participation matters. This exact approach worked with One America News. Enough cable customers contacted DirecTV and Verizon and urged those providers to stop overpaying for OAN. Eventually this resulted in them dropping the channel entirely.

13/ It also recently worked with Fox. Back in December, Fox was negotiating with a major cable provider. Not Fox News, but Fox Sports and other Fox properties. But, it's all the same bucket. Thousands of customers called this company and said they didn't want to pay Fox fee.

14/ And what happened? The company held firm. No increase for Fox. Off that one deal alone, Fox likely lost anywhere from $150-250M in guaranteed revenue they were hoping to get.

Point is: This approach has worked and will work here.

15/ If you want to help make sure Fox actually experiences meaningful accountability for the lies, extremism and bigotry, this is really the only way to do it. This opportunity won't come again for at least another 3 years. So, it's now or never.

nofoxfee.com