Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch is pushing back hard against whispers of a rift between the network and the NFL, insisting their partnership remains as strong as ever. During a Monday conference call, Murdoch addressed recent reports of discord head-on, while also revealing that Fox has snagged two more regular-season games for the 2026 slate.
“I think the important note to take here is that there is no tension, really, with the NFL,” Murdoch said, as reported by Deadline’s Jill Goldsmith. “We have been partners for 30 years. We’re looking forward to being partners for the next 30 years.”
The new games include a likely Week 10 matchup in Munich, which will create a Sunday tripleheader for Fox, and a Week 15 Saturday contest. The move comes as the NFL continues to expand its broadcast footprint across multiple platforms, raising questions about the future of traditional TV rights.
Speculation about tension between Fox and the league surfaced after the Wall Street Journal reported that Rupert Murdoch, Lachlan’s father and Fox’s founder, met with President Donald Trump in February. The elder Murdoch reportedly argued that the NFL’s push toward streaming services could “kill” broadcast networks, a sentiment that Trump echoed publicly.
“I don’t like it,” Trump said in a Sunday interview on Full Measure. “They’re making a lot of money. They could make a little bit less. They could let the people see… It’s crazy. So, I’m not happy about it.”
The backdrop to all this is a Department of Justice probe into whether the NFL’s broadcast distribution practices harm consumers. With partnerships now spanning Fox, CBS, NBC, ESPN, Amazon Prime Video, and Netflix, the league’s strategy has drawn scrutiny from both regulators and traditional broadcasters.
Not everyone is buying Murdoch’s assurances. Awful Announcing’s Drew Lerner speculated that the NFL could retaliate by giving Fox a weaker schedule, while Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio argued that Fox has created a “significant political problem” for the league, potentially jeopardizing its entire economic model.
Murdoch clarified that Fox has had “no substantive discussions” with the NFL about renegotiating or extending their current media rights deal. Despite the chatter, the network’s acquisition of extra games signals a continued commitment to football—even as the industry grapples with the shift from linear TV to streaming.
The tension between broadcasters and the NFL isn’t new, but it’s heating up as more games move behind paywalls. Fox’s stance reflects a broader anxiety among legacy networks about losing relevance in a digital-first world. Still, Murdoch’s message Monday was clear: Fox isn’t going anywhere, and neither is its partnership with the NFL.
