As news broke on Monday night that Rupert Murdoch had failed in his attempt to strengthen eldest son Lachlan’s control of the family media empire, a very different message about the fate of Fox Corporation was being delivered on the other side of the United States.

Fox chief financial officer Steve Tomsic told a UBS media conference in New York that the company’s share of the US cable news audience had rocketed from 50 per cent a few months ago to 70 per cent in November, as Donald Trump won the White House.