News Corp. chief operating officer Chase Carey told an investor conference Monday that the media giant is expecting hefty carriage fee increases for its flagship Fox News Channel as it enters into renewal negotiations with distributors this year.
"Fox News Channel, in terms of finding a channel that has the enormous importance to its segment of the market is second only to ESPN," Carey said at the Deutsche Bank Securities Media & Telecom conference in Palm Beach, Fla., Monday. "That's what you live for in the cable business to have a channel that a sizeable segment of the audience needs to have. We head into our renewals on Fox News later this year in a big way. We have an opportunity to move Fox News to a place where we are able to capture the inherent value and importance of that channel to the marketplace out there."
Carey wouldn't say just how much FNC will be asking for or what distributors it will be negotiating with. The last time Fox News entered renewal negotiations - in 2006 and 2008 - it tripled its fees in some cases to about 75 cents per subscriber per month.
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