Fox’s partnership with NFL shows tension, says Lachlan Murdoch, as network adds historic Sunday programming
Lachlan Murdoch, Fox’s executive chairman and CEO, announced on an earnings call Monday morning that Fox will televise an NFL tripleheader this coming season on prime-time television.
The tripleheader will begin with a morning game (on the east coast of the United States) in Munich where the Detroit Lions will be playing with a team to be announced on Thursday, followed by another game in the 1 pm window and another game in the 4 pm window.
Yes, that’s a lot of Fox NFL football for Week 10 of the upcoming season.
A Fox Sports cameraman uses a broadcast camera during the NFL game between the Carolina Panthers and the Atlanta Falcons at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Ga., on Nov. 16, 2025. (Erica Denhoff/Icon Sportswire)
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“The NFL has been a valued partner with Fox for more than 30 years in a mutually beneficial relationship,” Murdoch said on the phone. “To reinforce this relationship with the NFL, yesterday, Fox acquired the rights to two additional NFL games in national windows this coming season.
‘The first one will appear in week 10. Both national games … That will give us, I think, an international game from Munich. That will give us a triple-header that Sunday, which I think will be the first triple-header on TV in history. “
Murdoch said the second game that Fox has acquired will be broadcast on Saturday in week 15.
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The network’s additional games speak for themselves, but Murdoch and Chief Financial Officer Steve Tomsic were asked about the potential rift between Fox and the NFL and whether the media giant expects the league to try to renegotiate its current contract after various media reports.
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Fox Sports broadcast crew Tom Brady, Tom Rinaldi, Kevin Burkhardt, Erin Andrews, and Dean Blandino pose before the NFL game between the Chicago Bears and Dallas Cowboys at Soldier Field in Chicago, Ill., on Sept. 21, 2025. (Todd Rosenberg/Getty Images)
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Murdoch backtracked, saying there were no “serious discussions” about renegotiating his four-year contract.
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“I think the important note to take away here, and this goes to your second question, is there really no disagreement about the NFL,” he said. “We’ve been partners for 30 years. We look forward to being partners for the next 30 years. You know, as we’ve noted before, we have four years left on our current agreement.
“We’ve read speculation that the NFL would like to renegotiate and extend the current deal or the current market deals, but we haven’t had any serious discussions with the NFL about that. It’s hard outside of what we’ve read in the press surrounding the speculation about that. I wouldn’t want to add to that speculation at all.”
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Rupert Murdoch and Lachlan Murdoch pictured together. (FOX Corp.)
Murdoch, indeed, wants the relationship with the NFL to continue to blossom if the environment permits.
“…We would like to expand and deepen our relationship with the NFL, but we will only do it in a systematic way,” he said. “You know, it takes something, it creates long-term shareholder value for our shareholders.”
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