James Murdoch, the former CEO of 21st Century Fox, resigned as a director of News Corp., citing disagreements over some of the content published by the company’s news outlets and other strategic decisions.

21st Century Fox, which was sold to The Walt Disney Co. last year, was part of the empire built by mogul Rupert Murdoch, James’ father, who continues to control Fox Corp.--owner of Fox News--as well as News Corp. James Murdoch was rumored to be joining Disney after the sale. No job emerged and he left the family business when it was sold, pocketing a share of the $71 billion price tag.

In his brief resignation letter, James Murdoch did not elaborate on which content and decisions he disagreed with.

When he was with 21st Century Fox, James Murdoch was seen as wanting to tone down some of Fox News’ conservative and pro-President Trump commentary. He was involved in removing Fox News founder Roger Ailes and high rated Fox News primetime host Bill O’Reilly amid sexual harassment allegations.

His brother Lachlan Murdoch is now CEO of Fox. 

“If James Murdoch hadn’t already left Fox Corp. last year, you would have seen him quit Fox Corp. today too,” said Angelo Carusone, CEO of media watchdog Media Matters.

“It’s hard to blame him. In this year alone, Fox News has put the lives of Americans at risk spreading dangerous medical misinformation about the pandemic, prevented effective government action to save lives and the economy, stoked racial tensions by elevating and promoting white supremacists in the network, and served as a mouthpiece for Trump’s conspiracy theories and extremism,” Carusone said.  “The Murdochs’ money comes from making America sicker, weaker, more divided, and less competitive around the world. While his action of resigning alone does not absolve him of the blood on his hands caused by decades of Murdoch deceit, it’s an important step to no longer being part of the problem.” 

After nearly seven decades in the media business, beginning with a string of small local Australian newspapers in the 1950s that he built into the television, film and publishing behemoth that became News Corp. and 21st Century Fox, Rupert Murdoch again managed to shock the world with his decision last year to sell the bulk of his empire to The Walt Disney Co.

While the elder Murdoch has made a career out of going against the grain, mainly in buying assets at what others thought were exorbitant prices, this time was different. This time, Murdoch and Fox were sellers, and many pundits took their action as a sign that it may be time to throw in the media towel.

By now, Murdoch and Fox should be used to being underestimated. Whether it be the $1.58 billion the fledgling Fox broadcast network spent in 1993 to win National Football League television rights — an unheard of sum at the time, but almost quaint today — the 1996 decision to launch an all-news channel with a conservative bent (Fox News Channel) or the $5.7 billion Murdoch paid in 2007 for The Wall Street Journal (a 67% premium), there has been a common theme to his company’s actions: They knew something others didn’t.

That maverick sensibility has driven Rupert Murdoch, now 21st Century Fox’s executive co-chairman, since the beginning. It’s a trait he has passed on to sons Lachlan, also executive co-chairman, and James, 21st Century Fox’s CEO. Collectively, the three Fox leaders are the 2018 Multichannel News Executives of the Year.

Driving Up the Price

In typical Murdoch fashion, the most recent deal didn’t go down without some controversy. Disney, which had agreed to buy roughly two-thirds of 21st Century Fox in December 2017 for $52 billion, ended up paying $71.3 billion for the assets after a month-long bidding war with Comcast. After the deal is closed — expected within the first quarter of 2019 — the Murdochs will be among the largest individual shareholders in Disney and will control New Fox, consisting of 28 owned-and-operated television stations, the Fox broadcast network, cable news stalwarts Fox News Channel and Fox Business Network and national sports channels FS1, FS2 and Big Ten Network.

In one fell swoop, the Murdochs have transformed one of the world’s biggest cable and broadcast content companies into a leaner, meaner and more streamlined entity mainly focused on live news and sports.

Disney has doubled down on content under the premise that in the new streaming video paradigm, volume will win the day. Fox, though, has taken the opposite tack, focusing on live fare that will hopefully drive viewership, ratings and ad dollars its way.

The Murdochs were not available for this report. but there has been plenty written and speculated about the Disney deal and the New Fox entity that will emerge. For the most part, New Fox will be run by current 21st Century Fox co-executive chairman Lachlan Murdoch, who will be chairman and CEO of the new business. Lachlan came back into the family business in 2014 after a nine-year hiatus running an Australian investment fund, Illyria Pty Ltd.

While Lachlan will get an assist from 87-year-old father Rupert, who will be co-chairman of New Fox, James Murdoch, who had been CEO of Fox’s Sky satellite TV business in the U.K., and served as CEO of Fox for the past three years, won’t be a part of the new entity, instead opting to go off on his own, at least for a while.

Speculation has been rampant about where James Murdoch will end up. Early guesses that it would be in a senior leadership role at Disney or as chairman of electric car and aerospace company Tesla (he’s a board member) were wrong. For his part, Lachlan has said James was integral in running Fox and in making Sky plc into the leading European satellite platform — it was sold in October to Comcast after another bidding war — but that the Disney sale process was “cathartic” and that his brother decided it was time for a change.

James put it pretty succinctly himself at the Recode conference in May, months before the sale was even decided. “I think it’s time to do something new,” he said.

Comcast dropped out of the bidding for the Fox U.S. assets, but it stayed in the fray for another prized Fox property: U.K. satellite giant Sky. Fox had been trying to consolidate Sky for years (it owned 39%), but was rebuffed by U.K. regulators that feared full control would put too much power in the Murdochs’ hands. When Comcast lobbed in its $31 billion bid for Sky in February, it touched off a second bidding contest that the cable operator ultimately won with a nearly $40 billion commitment. At that price, Comcast also agreed to purchase Fox’s Sky stake for about $15 billion, further filling up the Murdoch’s coffers.

While some pundits had earlier believed the Sky stake was an asset the Murdochs would never give up, it again became a question of value. Lachlan Murdoch said the family holds no grudge against Comcast over Sky. “We don’t have skin in the game anymore,” he said at The New York Times DealBook conference on Nov. 1. “I think [Comcast chairman and CEO] Brian [Roberts] will be a great steward of Sky and they will do very well.”

To understand the impact of the Disney deal, one only has to look at Fox just four years ago when, sensing a shift in the content business, it made an unsolicited offer to buy Time Warner Inc. for $80 billion. That offer was rebuffed, but it was partially based on Fox’s belief that Time Warner properties, especially premium channel HBO, weren’t being properly utilized on the internet.

Less than a year after Fox made its offer, Time Warner launched its standalone HBO streaming service HBO Now and, a year after that, agreed to a $108.7 billion sale to AT&T.

Fox said back in 2014 that, after losing out on Time Warner, it was through with acquisitions and would instead focus on growing the business organically. Just two years later, while the AT&T-Time Warner regulatory approval dance was going on, the idea of selling assets rose to the forefront after Verizon Communications knocked on Fox’s door about a potential deal, Lachlan Murdoch said at the DealBook conference.

Though the family had been considering its moves in the new TV and entertainment landscape, Lachlan Murdoch said the prospect of being owned by a phone company was not so attractive.

“We didn’t think Time Warner would be a better-run media company because it was owned by a phone company,” he said at the DealBook conference. “We didn’t see the strategic fit.”

Lachlan Murdoch said the ultimate decision to sell was not made emotionally or lightly.

“The journey to sell such a large part of the business was one that took some time, took some time to really think about,” he said at DealBook. “To think about where the industry has gone, what the challenges were that we saw on the horizon, particularly in the entertainment business, but also about where these assets could sit to make them more viable and stronger than with us.”

A few months after the initial Verizon overture, Disney chairman and CEO Bob Iger called with a proposal, which Murdoch said “immediately made sense. My brother and I went to my father’s office and had a long conversation about it.”

When Disney announced on Dec. 14, 2017, that it had agreed to purchase the Fox assets — cable channels FX, FXX and National Geographic; the 20th Century Fox film and production studios; 22 regional sports networks; and Fox’s 30% interest in online video pioneer Hulu — it had expected to sew up the deal in a few months. But six months later, after weeks of speculation, Comcast lobbed in an all-cash bid for the assets, touching off a bidding war that made Fox and the Murdochs considerably richer.

Lachlan Murdoch hinted that even after signing the first Disney agreement, Fox knew the battle wasn’t quite over.

“Comcast was there in the beginning, they came shortly after we heard from Disney,” he said at the DealBook conference. “We couldn’t get our heads around the regulatory risk. I thought that our initial negotiation with Disney was very good, but that we could get a higher price if we could get a bidding war going. We felt there was more value.”

That bidding war lasted for about five weeks and ultimately kicked up the price for the Fox assets by nearly $20 billion. In addition, as part of the regulatory approval of the deal, Disney has agreed to sell off the 22 regional sports networks — valued by some at around $20 billion — within 90 days of closing its larger Fox deal.

Able to Buy More Assets

Now flush with cash, New Fox is expected to be on the hunt for more assets to beef up its existing lineup. So far the company has ponied up $3.3 billion over five years for rights to NFL Thursday Night Football, and another $1 billion over five years for WWE programming beginning in 2019. And there will be more.

“We will buy other things,” Lachlan Murdoch said at the DealBook conference. That could include its former regional sports networks, currently being auctioned by Disney; additional television stations; more sports assets or practically anything else. Lachlan Murdoch said the guiding principle to any additional acquisitions will be if they add to Fox’s already strong position in the industry.

“We are must-have channels for our distributors,” Lachlan Murdoch said at the DealBook conference. “What we don’t want to do is use that leverage in businesses that are not must-have.”

New Fox also appears to be bucking the trend for media companies to chase the Netflix streaming model, focusing more on direct-to-consumer offerings than on traditional distribution methods. Disney is a prime example: it launched a sports-themed DTC offering in April (ESPN+) and plans to launch an entertainment streaming offering, Disney+, next year that will include the recently acquired Fox content.

While Fox also has streaming plans — Fox News launched on-demand OTT service Fox Nation on Nov. 27 — it also realizes that an entertainment streaming service would require bulk the company simply doesn’t have.

At the DealBook conference last month, Lachlan Murdoch said Netflix really has two businesses, distribution and content generation, which both require tremendous scale to be successful.

“What we were seeing, and one of the reasons we sold to Disney, [was] for us to have scale in a direct streaming service, whether it is an FX streaming service or you could bundle some of our channels in an on-demand service, you can get to 2 [million] or 3 million subscribers, like CBS All Access, but then you get capped,” he said. “You need to have the scale of 20, 22, 30, 50 million subscribers to have enough significant scale to make that a real business.”

Although the Disney deal isn’t expected to close until next year, New Fox already has assembled much of its management team. Aside from Lachlan, who will become co-chairman and CEO of New Fox after the deal is closed (Rupert Murdoch will be co-chairman), the company has named 21st Century Fox chief financial officer John Nallen as chief operating officer, while Fox Sports chief operating officer Eric Shanks will become CEO of that unit. Fox News and Fox Business CEO Suzanne Scott and Fox Television Stations CEO Jack Abernethy will continue in those roles in the new company.

The company also poached longtime AMC Networks executive Charlie Collier to become CEO of entertainment at New Fox. Collier, who brought such scripted hits as Mad Men, The Walking Dead and Breaking Bad to AMC, on the surface seems an odd choice given the company’s expected focus on live news and sports, but Lachlan Murdoch said the different genres can reside comfortably and in a complementary manner within the new structure.

Building Around Live Programming

“We see a strength and strategic narrative in New Fox around live programming,” Lachlan Murdoch said. “Having said that, if you look, the amount of entertainment programming is declining at an incredible rate. What we can do is invest in the NFL, invest in baseball, the WWE, and use those to promote our entertainment programming as well. The way I look at is you have a tentpole with the best live news programming in the country, a tentpole with the best broadcast sports in the country, and how do you lift up the entertainment to that?”

A prime example of that strategy is the Tim Allen sitcom Last Man Standing, which Fox took after ABC cancelled the show last year. Moving the show to Friday nights allowed Fox to heavily promote the programming on Thursday nights — when it airs Thursday Night Football — into Friday. Ratings, Lachlan Murdoch said, are 80% better on Fox than they were on ABC.

News and sports has been a powerful draw for Fox and will continue to be. Lachlan Murdoch noted that during Major League Baseball’s World Series and a heavy news cycle in October, Fox networks had 50% of the live primetime U.S. television audience. He added that in late September and early October, the one-two punch of Thursday Night Football and the Senate confirmation hearings of now-Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh meant that 74% of live viewers in the country were watching live content on a Fox platform.

The Murdochs aren’t the only cheerleaders for New Fox. The Disney deal helped drive 21st Century Fox stock to new highs, with shares up by more than 40% for the year. Some analysts believe there is even more room for growth.

Morgan Stanley media analyst Ben Swinburne estimates that with a leaner, meaner New Fox, the Murdochs will be able to grow affiliate fees for the remaining cable networks by 7% to 8% and retrans fees by about 18% annually.

“Secular headwinds in traditional TV are well known, and we believe Fox’s focus on exclusive sports and the ratings success at Fox News support its ability to drive higher affiliate revenue growth as a smaller portfolio of U.S. networks,” Swinburne wrote in a recent note to clients.

Overall, Swinburne predicts New Fox can generate about 10% adjusted cash flow growth annually, after a flattish fiscal 2019 due to increased sports investments, through fiscal 2023.

Sports will be key to that success. While the news division has driven strong growth over the years — Swinburne estimates that Fox News has grown its share of C3 household ratings from 3.5% in 2010 to 5.3% in 2018 — Fox’s 2013 decision to convert its Speed and Fuel TV networks to FS1 and FS2 helped drive a 40% increase in affiliate revenue between 2014 and 2018. Over the next five years Swinburne sees the sports channels growing affiliate revenue between 7% and 8% annually.

Room to Grow Fees, Retrans Cash

MoffettNathanson media analyst Michael Nathanson, although bearish on linear TV prospects in general, also noted in a recent research report that Fox has ample runway for affiliate fee and retrans gains.

While operating profits in fiscal 2018 were down significantly at the television unit — $362 million, compared to $894 million in the prior year — and will continued to be pressured in fiscal 2019 as increased sports costs are factored in, Nathanson said it would be a mistake to use that as a benchmark for the future.

That massive investment in sports “equates to an unrivaled negotiating hand that will lead to accelerated revenue growth over the next five years,” Nathanson wrote.

At current valuations, most analysts peg New Fox at between $9 and $13 per share, based on the $38-pershare price Disney is paying for the other Fox assets. But most see that valuation — roughly nine times estimated 2018 earnings — as missing the point.

In his report, Nathanson wrote that there is a danger that too much focus on near term numbers “clouds the view of the compelling story at New Fox,” adding that all signs point to strong growth ahead.

For Fox and the Murdochs, it’s just another case of being underestimated. We’ve all seen how that usually pans out.

Murdoch family scion and 21 Century Fox CEO James Murdoch will likely not join the Walt Disney Co. in the event their deal is completed, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal, and instead will head his own company, possibly in the financial arena.

The Journal, citing people familiar with the matter, said James Murdoch will most likely start a venture capital fund to invest in start-ups in the digital and international media business if Fox's deal with Disney comes to fruition.

The report ends speculation that James Murdoch was being considered as a possible replacement for Disney chairman and CEO Robert Iger. Iger signed a two-year extension to his employment contract after Disney announced its $66.1 billion agreement to purchase certain Fox assets. In announcing the deal Iger said James Murdoch would assist with the integration of the two companies and after that the two would  continue discussions as to whether there was a role for Murdoch in the combined entity. 

James Murdoch is considered to be a tech savvy and astute businessman, and many would have considered him the logical choice for an executive role at Disney. But according to the Journal, lately James Murdoch has been telling associates that there would be no role for him at the combined company.

There is no guarantee that the Disney deal will go through. While the transaction has been approved by the Fox and Disney board of directors, it still needs to pass muster from shareholders and federal regulators. And Comcast, which had bid on the Fox assets before but was bested by Disney, is said to be lining up banks to makes its own competing all-cash offer.

If the Disney deal wins out, Fox will concentrate on its broadcast, sports and news assets and be run by James’ brother Lachlan Murdoch, who returned to the family business in 2014 after nearly a decade running his own Australian investment company. 

And Disney made moves to solve its succession problems in March, reshuffling management and elevating former chief strategy officer Kevin Mayer as chairman of a newly formed direct-to-consumer and international segment, and adding products responsibility to parks chief Robert Chapek’s duties. 

21st Century Fox executive chair Lachlan Murdoch put into words what most pay TV  operators feared in the wake of the programmer’s plans to pare down to select broadcast and cable assets while beefing up on sports rights – when the dust settles distributors can expect retransmission consent fees for its broadcast stations to rise.

Fox agreed in December to sell its film and TV production studios, regional sports networks and FX, FXX and National Geographic cable networks to The Walt Disney Co. for about $66.1 billion, while keeping its broadcast network, TV stations, and cable channels Fox News Channel, Fox Business, FS 1 and FS 2 and the Big Ten Network. More than a month later, the programmer agreed to pay $3.3 billion over five years for rights to Thursday Night Football games.

“We see great potential to increase our retransmission revenue quite aggressively,” Lachlan Murdoch said on a conference call to discuss fiscal second quarter results. “We think that for two reasons, one obviously is the focus and investment in sports with the new NFL Thursday night packages, but also being a more focused company with fewer channels in our bundle [we] will be able to drive our retrans for the stations quite aggressively.”

His brother, CEO James Murdoch, was equally encouraged by the retrans potential of the deal.

“It’s still a growth trajectory in  terms of getting what we think is a fair price, given the strength of the network, the strength of the stations and the size of that audience,” James Murdoch said.

And although the premium paid for Thursday Night Football was high -- nearly 50% -- for content that has suffered declining ratings, Fox believes adding the Thursday night games to its existing Sunday NFL package could grow viewership.

“When you look at the licensing that the NFL has undertaken, with expanding to Thursday night and we’ve talked in the past about what fragmentation can do to the overall audience on each individual day,” he continued. “We think the right answer is to concentrate that audience and to have Fox be the clear leader in NFL broadcasting.”

He added that having the extra night of football will help Fox’s other shows in terms of promotion and will also solidify the network’s position as a sports leader.

“In general, as the scarcity value of large audiences coming together around national events continues to rise, we really want Fox to be the home of that kind of compelling product,” James Murdoch said.

21st Century Fox CEO James Murdoch’s flirtation with the top spot at The Walt Disney Co. may have to wait a bit, after a report in the Wall Street Journal said current Disney chair and CEO Bob Iger would likely extend his employment deal at the company should it acquire certain assets from Fox.

Disney is reportedly in deep discussions with Fox concerning the purchase of its movie studio, regional sports networks, cable channels FX and National Geographic and other assets valued at more than $60 billion.

Related > Report: Disney, Fox Close in on Deal

According to reports, people familiar with the matter speculated that one of the benefits of the deal would be that Murdoch could step in to replace Iger as CEO, thus solving a nagging succession problem at Disney over the past several years. Iger had originally intended to retire as chairman and CEO at Disney in 2015, but has extended his deal each year – he is scheduled to step down in 2019 – as a successor has been hard to find.

Former Disney chief operating officer Thomas Staggs was the last serious candidate considered for the role,  but he resigned from the company in 2016 after it became apparent that he did not have the support of the Disney board of directors.

The deal, which could be announced as early as next week, would likely take until the end of 2018 to obtain all the necessary federal approvals, the Journal said. Integrating the assets could take up to another year, and would be even more difficult with a new CEO at the helm, adding to the need for Iger to extend his current contract. It is plausible that James Murdoch could take over as Disney CEO in 2020, once the integration is complete.  

Murdoch has reportedly been under pressure at Fox after weathering sexual harassment scandals at its Fox News unit and a phone-hacking scandal at its U.K. tabloid newspapers in 2012.  According to an earlier report in the Journal, Murdoch has at times “felt like a CEO in title only.”

With rumors that a major sale of television assets is imminent, 21st Century Fox CEO James Murdoch said it would be wrong to comment on market speculation.

Speaking at the UBS Communications Conference in New York Tuesday (Dec. 5), Murdoch declined an invitation to discuss the asset sales reports, which indicate that Fox would sell assets including its cable networks, movie and TV studios, some of its international business and its regional sports networks to The Walt Disney Co.

Related > Report: Disney, Fox Close in on Deal

“It would be wrong to comment on market speculation,” said Murdoch, citing company policy, "so there’s nothing to add to that.”

But he added that “the way we’re running the business is about value, long-term value.”

Related > Would a Mouse Eat a Fox?

He added that the shape of the business that management was aiming for was “what’s going to create the most value for our shareholders.”

Lachlan and James Murdoch sure didn’t sound like two media chiefs hot to unload their programming assets Wednesday, spending a good portion of 21st Century Fox’s fiscal first quarter earnings call touting the growth prospects for their cable and satellite operations.

But while neither executive would directly address speculation around their desire to sell assets, they didn’t quite squash all of chatter either.

Fox was said to be in talks, since ended, to sell its movie studio and cable assets like FX Networks and National Geographic channel as well as its 39% stake in European satellite company Sky to The Walt Disney Co. While Fox co-executive chairman Lachlan Murdoch opened up the earnings call telling analyst he would not respond to media speculation, he had plenty of wind left to tout the company’s ongoing operations.

Overall results were strong – revenue was up 8% in the fiscal first quarter and affiliate fee revenue for its cable channels rose 11%, due to contractual increases across all of its brands.

“We told you many years ago that innovative disruption would come to our industry,” Lachlan Murdoch said on the call. “…We moved early to jettison our thin brands and went deep with investments for our rich distinctive brands, when many market pundits were skeptical of this approach.”

He added that because of that strategy, Fox’s brands have full carriage on all traditional and newly launched platforms.

“There is a lot of talk about the growing importance of scale in the media industry. And let me be very clear, Fox has the required scale to continue to both execute on our growth strategy and deliver increased returns to shareholders,”  Lachlan Murdoch said. “We are specifically seeing this in our affiliate fee growth again this quarter and the success of Hulu and our inclusion in all of the emerging MVPDs. We are excited about all of our brands and the breadth of opportunity they continue to offer.”

Asked if the changing landscape Fox is rethinking its asset mix and whether scale matters less or more today, CEO James Murdoch said that the company has changed its portfolio over the past several years.

“We’ve really simplified our operating model, we’ve got a great set of brands and a great set of assets that we really like,” James Murdoch said. “And as you can see from these quarterly results and from the past couple of quarters I hope, a real trajectory of good performance.”

James Murdoch also commented on plans to fully consolidate the Sky satellite TV business, adding that the company continues to work with U.K regulators and hopes to receive approval of the transaction by the middle of 2018.

21st Century Fox is getting closer to cutting ties with Bill O’Reilly, the biggest star on its high-rated, profit-generating Fox News Channel, according to published reports.

Following an April 1 article in The New York Times disclosing that Fox News and O’Reilly have paid $13 million to settle a number of sexual harassment claims, advertisers have pulled their commercials from The O’Reilly Factor, adding financial hardship to pressure from activists and women’s rights groups.

O’Reilly went on vacation last week. He had planned to return his show on April 24.

Related > Report: Fox Settled O’Reilly Sexual Harassment Claim Last Summer

Last year, Fox News’s powerful chairman Roger Ailes, who built the channel into a TV juggernaut and political powerhouse, was forced out amid sexual harassment charges.

21st Century Fox’s new CEO James Murdoch appears to be trying to run a more by the books organization than his swashbuckling father Rupert Murdoch, who remains executive chairman of 21st Century Fox and was put in charge of Fox News after Ailes’ departure.

Related > Fox News Channel, Ailes, Shine Named in New Sexual Harassment Lawsuit

The Wall Street Journal said Fox News is preparing to cut ties with O’Reilly, according to people close to the situation. The Journal, like Fox, is controlled by the Murdochs. A final decision on O’Reilly could come as early as the next several days, the paper said.

In New York magazine, Gabriel Sherman reported that the Murdochs are leaning toward announcing that O’Reilly will not return to the air.

One factor pushing the Murdochs is a pending ruling on 21st Century Fox’s $14 billion takeover of Sky TV in Europe, according to the magazine. The British Office of Communications is getting ready to rule on whether Fox is a “fit and proper” owner for Sky. Parting with O’Reilly would make Fox appear more squeaky clean to regulators by removing at least one potential objection.

According to The New York Times a new complaint from a former Fox News employee was registered on the 21st Century Fox sexual harassment hotline. The employee said that in 2008 that O’Reilly would leer at her, grunt like a “wild boar” and called her “hot chocolate.”

The Times said O’Reilly’s lawyer, Marc Kasowitz of Kasowitz Benson Torres, said it was “outrageous that an allegation from an anonymous person about something that purportedly happened almost a decade ago is being treated as fact.”

Kasowitz also said O’Reilly “has been subjected to a brutal campaign of character assassination that is unprecedented in post-McCarthyist America.”

“This law firm has uncovered evidence that the smear campaign is being orchestrated by far-left organizations bent on destroying O’Reilly for political and financial reasons. That evidence will be put forth shortly, and it is irrefutable,” Kasowitz said.

Ailes has also denied all of the charges made against him.

The Paley Center for Media hosts its International Council Summit Thursday and Friday (Nov. 19-20) in New York, where top media and entertainment company executives will convene to discuss the transactions that "are moving the needle and changing the face of the global media landscape."

The summit, programmed around the theme "Deals & Dealmaking: Capitalizing on the Media Revolution," opens at 9 a.m. Thursday with an interesting pairing when Discovery Commuications president/CEO David Zaslav interviews James Murdoch, CEO of 21st Century Fox.

The event's other keynote speakers are Tim Armstrong, CEO of AOL, and Marni Walden, EVP and president of product innovcation and new business at Verizon, who close out the day at 4:30 p.m. with "40/40 — Going All In on Mobile," during which they promise to open up about their “40-40 opportunity — $40 billion going to mobile and $40 billion going to video." Chris Pantoya, the NBA's SVP of mobile strategy, will moderate.

Among the featured speakers is Hearst executive vice chairman Frank A. Bennack, Jr., who is also chairman of the Paley Center. He and Steve Swartz, Hearst president and CEO, will join Multichannel News editorial director Mark Robichaux at 2:45 p.m. for "Masters of the Game," a half-hour conversation about the executives' game plan for building and reinvigorating a global media powerhouse through the strategic acquisition of content, technologies and multiple platforms. 

Other sessions of note on Thursday include:

--"It’s a Disneyfied World!" at 11:05 a.m., with Andy Bird, chairman of Walt Disney International, and Claudio Chiaromonte, EVP and managing director, The Walt Disney Co. Latin America, on their approach to building Disney’s global network, linking all of its businesses;

--"Breaking the Backend," at 11:35 a.m., with United Talent Agency's Peter Benedek, Discovery's Rich Ross and Leftfield Entertainment's Brent Montgomery, on the new economics of programming, production, content investment and talent deal structures; and

--"Media Myths & Consumer Trends: Separating Fact from Fiction," at 2:30 p.m., a 15-minute talk by Nielsen global president Steve Hasker on Nielsen's progress toward measuring the "Total Audience" for all content across all platforms and consumer trends the media measurement company foresees in 2020.

The conference continues on Friday (Nov. 20) through 1:30 p.m. with six additional sessions. For more information, visit the Paley IC 2015 website.

Top 21st Century Fox executives saw their total compensation shrink in fiscal 2015, with chairman Rupert Murdoch dipping 4.5% and his son James weathering a 19.3% haircut, while top lieutenant, chief operating officer Chase Carey’s pay dipping 17.1%.

Rupert Murdoch’s total compensation was $27.9 million, down 4.5% from the $29.2 million he earned in fiscal 2014. James Murdoch, who received a big vote of confidence from his dad earlier in the year when he handed over the CEO reins to him in July, received $15.1 million in total comp, down from $18.7 in fiscal 2014. The difference for both men was in stock awards – Rupert Murdoch received $5.1 million in stock awards in fiscal 2015 compared to $6.3 million in the prior year. James received $5.4 million in stock awards in fiscal 2015, down from $6.6 million in fiscal 2014.

For Carey, who became executive vice chairman in July, fewer stock awards ($9 million vs. $11.1 million in fiscal 2014) helped drive down his total compensation to $23.2 million from $27.98 million in the prior year.

Senior executive vice president and chief financial officer John Nallen also took a hit, with his pay dipping 14.6% from $9.6 million to $8.2 million, mainly because of a lower stock award ($2.7 million vs. $3.1 million in the prior year). The only top executive to get a raise was senior executive vice president and general counsel Gerson Zweifach, who received a 48.3% increase to $8.6 million from $5.8 million in the prior year, primarily due to a larger stock award ($2.3 million vs. $276,352 in fiscal 2014).

In what was one of the worst kept secrets in a medium not known for keeping secrets, 21st Century Fox chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch will officially hand over the CEO reins to his son James on July 1, with his other progeny Lachlan Murdoch assuming the role of co-executive chairman.

News of the shift first surfaced last week. In a statement Tuesday 21st Century Fox said that current chief operating officer Chase Carey will become executive vice chairman and serve in that role through June 30, 2016.

“It has always been our priority to ensure stable, long term leadership for the Company, and these appointments achieve that goal,” Rupert Murdoch said in a statement. “Lachlan and James are each talented and accomplished executives and together, we, as shareholders and partners, will strive to take our company to new levels of growth and opportunity at a time of dynamic change in our industry.”

“I can’t thank Chase Carey enough for his friendship, counsel and leadership over the past decades,” Murdoch continued. “He will be actively engaged in supporting Lachlan and James as they step in to their new roles.”

Both James and Lachlan have been groomed for top spots at the company for years and are expected to work together in partnership running the company. The elder Murdoch, who at 84-years old is still in good health and a  common presence around the office, is also expected to continue to be heavily involved in decision making at the company.

Chase Carey said: “I am grateful to Rupert for giving me the opportunity of a lifetime and truly believe there isn’t a Company out there that’s more exciting, with more growth potential, than 21st Century Fox. I look forward to continuing to work with Rupert to support Lachlan and James in their new positions.”

Lachlan Murdoch and James Murdoch, in a joint statement, said: “We are both humbled by the opportunity to lead, with our father and the talented team of executives at 21st Century Fox, this extraordinary company.

We are grateful to Chase for being the leader and partner that he has been, and we are both delighted that his wisdom and sure handedness will continue to serve 21st Century Fox. We are also grateful to the Board for providing us the opportunity to lead this great company.”

“Most importantly, we each look forward to working with the entire team of creators, executives, artists and all of our colleagues that make up our global businesses, to steer the Company into the future, and to drive continued value for our shareholders.”

Rod Eddington, Lead Director, 21st Century Fox, said: “The Board has long been focused on succession and we’re fortunate to have two very talented executives in Lachlan and James to take this Company into the future. Working in tandem with Rupert, we’re confident their partnership and stewardship will give this business real momentum for many years to come. We are also deeply grateful to Chase Carey for his many years of exceptional leadership and his agreement to continue his contributions through his new position.”

Twenty-First Century Fox chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch’s total compensation rose slightly in fiscal 2014, a year after the media conglomerate split into two separate companies.

According to a proxy statement filed Monday, Murdoch received $29.2 million in total compensation in fiscal 2014, a 1% rise over the $28.9 million he received in fiscal 2013.

Murdoch’s News Corp. completed the split which cleaved its holdings into two separate companies – 21st Century Fox, which holds its television assets such as the Fox Broadcasting network and its cable holdings; and News Corp., which includes its publishing assets – on June 28, 2013.

Murdoch’s base salary actually declined for the year to $7.1 million from $8.1 million and his non-equity incentive plan compensation dipped from $12.5 million in fiscal 2013 to $10.2 million in fiscal 2014. He more than made up the difference with $6.3 million in stock awards (up from $5.2 million in the prior year) and $5.4 million in non-qualified deferred compensation earnings (up from $2.8 million in the prior year)

Chief operating officer Chase Carey’s total compensation rose 3.5% in the period,, to about 28 million, up from $27.05 million in fiscal 2013. Co-COO James Murdoch – Rupert’s son – had the biggest increase (9.7%) to $18.7 million from $17.04 million in fiscal 2013.