Even as the Murdochs bitterly feud, their empire thrives

NOTHING in Fox’s television schedules last year was quite as exciting – or, at times, as profane – as the drama that played out in a closed probate court in Reno, Nevada.

Rupert Murdoch, the now 94-year-old founder and controlling shareholder of Fox Corporation and its sister company, News Corp, was trying to change the terms of a family trust in order to block three of his children from inheriting control of the companies on his death. The high-stakes legal manoeuvre was rejected. An appeal – and thus a new season of morbid entertainment for media watchers – is in the works.

As the Murdochs continue their decades-long, multibillion-dollar family feud, the empire they are fighting over is flourishing.