Murdoch Empire Losses Grow

The travails of Rupert Murdoch are not currently limited to his most recent engagement being called off: over in the States, the activities of Fox News Channel (fair and balanced my arse) look likely to end up costing him well north of a billion US Dollars (minimum), and here in the UK, the balance sheet continues to contain rather a lot of red ink. So what is causing the loss?

Simples. The fallout from phone hacking claims has not yet abated, and even though News UK has still refused to admit that the Super Soaraway Currant Bun was hacking - not just the late and not at all lamented Screws - the payouts continue, as does the determination of the Murdoch mafiosi not to let any of the claims get anywhere near the door of the court.

As the BBC has reported, “The publisher of the Sun newspaper has set aside £127m to cover the costs of phone hacking court cases, according to recent company filings … A case brought by Prince Harry is among those covered, the BBC understands … News Group said the sum was not a sign it accepted liability”. So how does the £127 million break down?

“News Group earmarked £46.8m for damages and claimant's legal expenses relating to phone hacking and inappropriate payments to public officials in the twelve months to 3 July 2022, and another £53m for future costs, totalling £99.8m, according to accounts filed at Companies House. It has budgeted a further £27.5m for legal fees relating to the closure of the News of the World”.

There is more. “That marked a significant increase from the £49m in legal fees and damages the firm disclosed in the previous year … The legal costs helped to push the company into an annual loss of £127m, up from £52m the previous year”. But it wasn’t the only loss maker, as Press Gazette noted.

“The new accounts from News UK’s subsidiaries also revealed TalkTV made £1.1m in revenue between its launch on 25 April and the end of the financial year on 3 July … [News UK Broadcasting] made a loss of £34m after it launched TalkTV”. So what’s the channel going to make in a full year - something like £5 million? That’s a GB News level of losses.

Moreover, it takes those losses over £160 million. And despite PG reminding readers “The Sun more than doubled its pre-tax losses to £127.2m last year - but News UK stablemates The Times and Sunday Times boosted profits by 115% to £73.2m”, “the High Court heard in March last year there were at that time 52 claims registered against NGN, with a further 436 claims at the pre-action letter stage and 82 more claims ‘in the pipeline’”.

So that’s a lot more of that provision for future losses. The Murdoch empire cannot shake off the taint of illegal activity: this is a road that Associated Newspapers does not want to travel, and why it is throwing as much legal firepower as it can muster at efforts to have the action brought against it by Prince Harry, Elton John and several others struck out. It’s that simple.

Because, as the experience of News UK has shown, once you start paying off claimants while maintaining that no wrongdoing took place but making sure that none of the claims get to court, it becomes seriously expensive. A Judge has now imposed a cut-off date for new claims to be brought: Associated will have seen the mess and envisioned its own profitability heading south.

Why does the right leaning part of our free and fearless press hate Prince Harry? You might wish to ask that. I couldn’t possibly comment.

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