We all know Fox News enjoys significantly higher ratings than its news-network rivals, but the disparity in these numbers on their earnings and profits seems pretty astounding:
Fox News, which also declined comment for this story, remains one of the most profitable channels of any kind on television. It attracted $2 billion in advertising and license fees from cable operators last year, according to SNL Kagan’s estimates. It earned $1.2 billion — for a staggering 60 percent profit margin.
Even woebegone MSNBC, whose daytime audience has fallen to fewer than 300,000 viewers, did relatively steady business, turning a $206 million profit on $501 million in revenue last year, according to SNL Kagan (the comparable numbers for CNN: earnings of $327 million on $1.13 billion of revenue).
So Fox News Channel is six times as profitable as MSNBC, and about three and a half times as profitable as CNN.