CASE STUDY

HAS FOX FUMBLED?

The whole case is all about buying four seasons of National Football Conference (NFC) by Rupert Murdoch, chairman of News Corporation, Fox’s parent company. Fox was only 7 years old and comparing with other channels like CBS, ABC, NBC, Fox are beginners and have only low rating. Being a new channel Fox was not in the favourite list of viewers. So getting into the list was Fox’s primary objective. They have to,

1. Increase viewership.2. Attract advertisers.3. Promote other programs.4. Increase visibility.

Huge amount of money was paid by Fox to get that television right. But the effort taken by Murdoch Fox became top of the pyramid.

CBS was the channel which usually acquire NFC rights for the past 38 years. It was the first time that they lost the bid and left without football match. Everyone had a negative opinion on participating this bid. But Murdoch was confident in his new marketing tactics.

The decision made by Murdoch was an unplanned decision. So we can call it as a Nonprogrammed decision. Non programmed decisions are specific solutions created through an unstructured process to deal with no routine problems. The problem here was the rating of Fox channel. For increasing the rating the only solution was to increase viewers. So Murdoch bought the NFC. He found the opportunity behind NFC and he wants to utilize it effectively. He not only achieved the NFC television rights by paying very high price but also they hired commentators and co-commentators from CBS. But it helped them to expanding viewership group to people in between 18-45 and attract advertisers and thus rather than becoming an ordinary channel, it became most top rated television channel. Dialectical inquiry method or devil’s advocate method of analysis is in which a decision maker determines and negates his or her assumptions, and then creates “countersolutions” based on the negative assumptions. Considering this case, If NFL doesn’t have high viewership

then they can go for NBA, NFB or any other games. If sports doesn’t attract viewers and advertisers they can plan for other programs like drama, serials, news, weather broadcast, public discussions etc. Even if they had to potentially take a risk and even to an extend of uncertainity there plan worked.

Rational model of decision making is a four-step process that helps managers weigh alternatives and choose the alternative with the best chance of success. When considering this case, first stage was ‘Investigate the Situation and define the problem’. The situation here was poor viewership of Fox. When ‘Diagnosing the causes’ they found out that lack of viewers interest in this channel since it is a new one. Then they were clear on decision making which was to buy football broadcasting rights. Second stage was to ‘Develop Alternatives’. Alternatives can be basketball, baseball or any other programs. Third step was to ‘Evaluate and find the best one’. Thus NFC was selected. Fourth stage was the ‘implementation’ part. They done it well.