Fox Corporation has named Kathy Kelly-Brown as its senior vice president of communications.
In her new role, Kelly-Brown will be responsible for leading strategic external and internal communications plans for the media giant’s ad sales division, reporting directly to ad sales, marketing and brand partnerships president Jeff Collins.
Brown most recently served as senior vice president of strategic initiatives for Comcast NBCUniversal. Prior to that, she served in various communications leadership roles at NBCU in the corporate communications, news and entertainment divisions. Before NBCU, Kell-Brown served as vice president of entertainment publicity for Warner Bros. Television.
Brown’s appointment comes as Fox is gearing up for its Upfront presentation to advertisers on May 13.
During its third quarter of 2024, advertising revenue fell $1.24 billion, compared to $1.88 billion in the prior year quarter, primarily attributed to the absence of the prior year broadcast of Super Bowl LVII and fewer NFL games at Fox Sports, partially offset by growth a Tubi.
The ad-supported streamer has reached nearly 80 million monthly active users, with 22% revenue growth driven by a 36% increase in total viewing time on the platform. Over 60% of Tubi users are classified as cord cutters or cord nevers and 90% of those users watch on demand content.
While the lack of primary elections this year hurt Fox’s political advertising, CEO Lachlan Murdoch said the company expects strong political advertising for national and local races in the fall of 2024.
“Overall advertising trends of Fox are clearly moving in the right direction, both in the scatter market and in early upfront discussions,” he added. “As we look to our annual upfront presentation next week, we are focused on live content and must-watch events, such as the coming presidential election cycle and next year’s Super Bowl combined with Tubi’s position as the most watched free TV and movie streaming service, will favor our enviable position with advertisers across the Fox portfolio.”
