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Fox Buys TMZ in Deal Valued at Less Than $50M
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com ^ | September 13, 2021 | BY ALEX WEPRIN

Posted on 09/14/2021 10:29:03 AM PDT by Red Badger

As AT&T's WarnerMedia sheds the asset, founder Harvey Levin has signed a multi-year deal with Fox and will keep overseeing day-to-day operations.

AT&T’s WarnerMedia has sold the celebrity news and gossip brand TMZ to Fox Corp.

The deal will see the notorious tabloid founded by Harvey Levin operate under the Fox broadcast network umbrella. In addition to its websites, TMZ has also had a syndicated TV series, TMZ on TV, since 2007, and a spinoff series TMZ Sports on FS1. Fox’s owned and operated stations were the launch partner for the syndicated show, and keep airing the program, which had been earlier renewed through the 2022-2023 season.

Terms of the agreement were not disclosed, but someone familiar with the sale pegged the value of the deal to The Hollywood Reporter at less than $50 million.

Levin will keep running the day-to-day operations of TMZ, and will report to Rob Wade, Fox Entertainment’s president of alternative entertainment and specials. Levin has signed a multi-year deal with Fox as part of the sale, according to someone familiar with the terms. According to another source, Levin had told WarnerMedia executives that he was unlikely to stick around with the company if it continued under the WarnerMedia umbrella, and Fox quickly emerged as the only realistic buyer, which may explain the somewhat surprising valuation.

In addition to the digital brands (including all the websites TMZ operates, like TooFab.com) and the TV shows, Fox will also operate the company’s tour bus business in Los Angeles. Fox’s in-house syndication arm, Fox First Run, will oversee sales for TMZ, and the company says it plans to “further market and monetize the TMZ brand across its station group; ad-supported streamer, Tubi; and other Fox-owned platforms.”

Fox has been on a bit of a spending spree in recent months. In May it bought the sports site Outkick from founder Clay Travis, and last month it announced an investment in the blockchain company Eluvio, which will power the company’s Blockchain Creative Labs, which it is backing with a $100 million investment.

Levin founded TMZ in 2005, and continues to serve as its managing editor, delivering Hollywood scoops and rumors. The company gained notoriety for its unflinching scoops, which included being the first to report on the deaths of Michael Jackson and Prince, and Mel Gibson’s anti-Semitic rant. As it shifted toward TV and video, it became known for its ambush interview style, with a camera crew (or sometimes an individual with an iPhone, surprising celebrities on the street and asking questions).

Under the ownership of Fox, TMZ, which created a new form of tabloid journalism for the digital age, will be owned by Rupert Murdoch, who redefined the genre through his ownership of newspapers like the New York Post, the U.K.’s The Sun, and Australia’s Daily Telegraph.

And just as the Post’s Page Six became a place for Hollywood and New York’s elite to leak negative stories about perceived enemies and crow about their success, TMZ famously forged industry relationships of its own. Donald Trump, years before he was elected president, was a regular in both.

Fox tried to use the Page Six brand to launch something of a companion show to TMZ in 2018 with Page Six TV, but that effort was canceled after two seasons.

It also brings TMZ under the same corporate umbrella as Fox News, which is unlikely to boost TMZ’s popularity among Hollywood talent and executives. Both TMZ and Fox News launched as crusaders against the status quo in cable news and gossip news, backed by major mainstream media companies, but embracing a point-of-view that was absent from existing offerings.

“The unique and powerful brand Harvey has created in TMZ has forever changed the entertainment industry and we’re excited to welcome them to Fox,” said Lachlan Murdoch, executive chairman and CEO of Fox Corp. “TMZ has been an impactful program for our Fox television stations and broadcast partners for many years, and I know Jack Abernethy and Charlie Collier will find creative ways to utilize and expand this content in effective and compelling ways for our audiences.”

“Harvey Levin created a groundbreaking destination for entertainment news, and for the past 15+ years TMZ has celebrated great success,” said Channing Dungey, chairman of the Warner Bros. Television Group, in a statement. “TMZ will now be more closely aligned with the distributor of the popular content they create, and WarnerMedia wishes Harvey and everyone on the team the best as they venture into a new partnership with the talented team at Fox.”

WarnerMedia parent company AT&T, meanwhile, has been offloading “non-core” assets to help pay down its 5G wireless spectrum-driven debt load.

Aside from WarnerMedia, which it intends to spin off in a deal with Discovery Inc., the telecom giant has spun off its DirecTV and UVerse businesses, sold its Crunchyroll anime streaming business and its stake in Game Show network to Sony, and sold off a few of its European and Latin America divisions.

The name TMZ stands for “Thirty-Mile Zone,” a 30-mile area in Los Angeles used by the entertainment industry to determine compensation, rules and working conditions for production staff.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; US: California
KEYWORDS: fox; harveylevin; tmz; warnermedia
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1 posted on 09/14/2021 10:29:03 AM PDT by Red Badger
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To: Red Badger

Too bad.

TMZ was reliably independent.


2 posted on 09/14/2021 10:32:53 AM PDT by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion, or satire. Or both.)
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To: Red Badger

Fox becomes shadier and shadier.


3 posted on 09/14/2021 10:33:19 AM PDT by immadashell (New Planned Parenthood slogan: Black Babies’ Lives Don't Matter!c)
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To: Red Badger

Fox is dead.

4 posted on 09/14/2021 10:34:03 AM PDT by dragnet2 (Diversion and evasion are tools of deceit)
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To: Red Badger

Sort of like buying Mediterranean Avenue?


5 posted on 09/14/2021 10:34:31 AM PDT by fruser1
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To: fruser1

And Baltic..................


6 posted on 09/14/2021 10:34:49 AM PDT by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegal aliens are put up in hotels.....................)
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To: Red Badger
celebrity news and gossip brand TMZ to Fox Corp.

Maybe thy should replace the 6pm hour and Brett Baier with an Entertainment program like the E! and call it TMZ! At least make the best of the acquisition.

7 posted on 09/14/2021 10:35:08 AM PDT by 1Old Pro (Let's make crime illegal again!)
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To: dragnet2

8 posted on 09/14/2021 10:36:09 AM PDT by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegal aliens are put up in hotels.....................)
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To: Red Badger; fruser1

The Dark Purples (Mediterranean and Baltic) are GREAT for helping to create artificial housing shortages.


9 posted on 09/14/2021 10:36:46 AM PDT by Dr. Sivana (There is no salvation in politics.)
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To: 1Old Pro

My guess is they are gonna make it a late night show, up against Kibble and co............................


10 posted on 09/14/2021 10:38:06 AM PDT by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegal aliens are put up in hotels.....................)
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To: Dr. Sivana

So you’re the slumlord!.................


11 posted on 09/14/2021 10:38:46 AM PDT by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegal aliens are put up in hotels.....................)
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To: 1Old Pro

Wonder if we’ll see the face of TMZ change now......it needs to.


12 posted on 09/14/2021 10:39:25 AM PDT by caww ( )
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To: Red Badger
If TMZ avoids the "gotcha" attacks, they have a lot of desperate entertainers who'll gladly give TMZ material for episodes in exchange for keeping their name in the news.

Such Tabloid Television is cheaper than Reality TV, with a lot of B and C level entertainers who'll do anything for a mention.

TMZ needs minimal staffing since there are a lot of marginally employed paparazzi working on consignment. TMZ isn't responsible for their pay or benefits.

13 posted on 09/14/2021 10:45:18 AM PDT by T.B. Yoits
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To: BenLurkin

I always loved TMZ because it didn’t kiss celebrity ass. Highly Questionable on ESPN with similar. They didn’t slobber all over the top athletes.


14 posted on 09/14/2021 10:56:42 AM PDT by SoCal Pubbie
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To: dragnet2

Like foxes. Faux News is dead.


15 posted on 09/14/2021 11:00:30 AM PDT by Trumpisourlastchance
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To: Red Badger
So you’re the slumlord!

Absolutely. I have managed to win four player games with just the dark purples and the railroads. If you have the dark purples and light blues with 4 houses on each, it is next to impossible to for competing players to build up much on their oranges and reds if they go at the same time, not to mention those pesky $160-$400 rents to pay. It is like having a cloud of mosquitoes about you.
16 posted on 09/14/2021 11:12:13 AM PDT by Dr. Sivana (There is no salvation in politics.)
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To: BenLurkin

And TMZ won’t break any news damaging to Deep State or its interests now.


17 posted on 09/14/2021 11:19:26 AM PDT by mewzilla (Those aren't masks. They're muzzles. )
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To: mewzilla

I’m sort of impressed by how much disparity there was between their visibility and their worth. I saw so many references to them without ever looking for them that I assumed they were a much more valuable franchise. It’s a bit like when Bezos bought the WAPO for $250M. It had at least $250M of non-newspaper assets (radio and TV stations) in the deal - meaning the paper was valued at $0. About right.


18 posted on 09/14/2021 11:31:18 AM PDT by Wally_Kalbacken
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To: Red Badger

Good deal for Fox, people like that crap and TMZ has a reputation for delivering it.


19 posted on 09/14/2021 11:34:38 AM PDT by bigbob
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To: bigbob
people like that crap and TMZ has a reputation for delivering it.
Unlike Fox and COUGH-COUGH- Hunter Biden-Cough-Cough?

The "we report, you decide-Most trusted news network" needs Hunter Biden to distract the numbskulls from noticing the participation Fox News had with their (continued) silence and (continued) internal censorship on the 2020 election fraud to illegally defeat, betray Trump, and the nation for Biden.

Speaking of crap:

>Chris Wallace said he has avoided having GOP lawmakers who've made false claims about Biden's victory on his Sunday show. "I have purposefully not had them on, frankly, because I don't want to hear their crap,"
He is of course the self- proclaimed arbiter of "false claims"...Never mind Fox News has NEVER discussed it, nor have they ever made mention of other networks discussing it...

They did however fire 2 outstanding hosts, Lou Dobbs and Trish Regan for bringing it up.

20 posted on 09/14/2021 11:58:03 AM PDT by lewislynn ( Thank you Fox news for saving us from Trump < /sarcasm >)
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