Versant CEO Says MS NOW Viewers Are Not Tired of News

Mark Lazarus, the chief executive of Versant Media, told investors on Tuesday that the audience for MS NOW is not experiencing the same weariness reported by rival networks.

Lazarus addressed the state of viewer interest during a call with investors. He did this in direct response to comments made the previous day by Lachlan Murdoch, the chief executive of Fox Corp. Murdoch had stated that Fox News audiences were suffering from "viewer fatigue." This condition, Murdoch claimed, led to a drop in ratings during the third quarter and in October. Lazarus disagreed with that assessment for his own company.

"We are not seeing any of that viewer fatigue," Lazarus said. He suggested that recent growth in MS NOW ratings might be driven by people leaving other channels. "I think some of the viewership is leaving other places and trying us," he said. He added that viewers spend more time with the network because they see value in the content.

The two executives lead companies with different political leanings. Fox News caters to a conservative base, while MS NOW leans left. Poll projections released recently suggest Republicans may lose seats in both the U.S. House and Senate on Election Day. Lazarus described the upcoming election coverage as a major event for his organization. "Today is the Super Bowl for the news organization," he said. He expressed confidence that MS NOW would continue to grow its audience.

Lazarus also noted that audiences for CNBC, another channel owned by Versant Media, remain active and growing. He said the company is not currently seeing fatigue in those demographics either.

Fox News still commands a much larger audience than its competitors. In the third quarter, Fox News averaged 2.06 million total viewers in primetime. MS NOW averaged 930,000 viewers during the same period. Among viewers aged 25 to 54, the key demographic for advertisers, Fox News averaged 183,000 viewers. MS NOW averaged 84,000 in that group.

The trend lines for the two networks are moving in opposite directions. Fox News primetime averages fell 17 percent among all viewers and nearly 25 percent in the advertiser demo in the third quarter. MS NOW primetime averages rose 16 percent in total viewers and 27.3 percent among those aged 25 to 54. On Monday, Murdoch attributed the Fox decline to tough headlines, including flooding in parts of the U.S. and the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. He said those viewers are not switching channels but are simply watching less television. Murdoch also dismissed rivals, saying, "You can’t really call them peers, but our cable news competitors."