No.1 ranked Fox's average 2.2 million prime time viewers are overwhelmingly conservative, white and relatively old at an average age of 68, according to Nielsen.

It closely resembles the angry demographic group who continue to rally behind Mr Trump's scorched earth rhetoric against immigrants, international trade and the political establishment.

Top-rating Fox is the jewel in the crown of the Murdoch family empire's 21st Century Fox, delivering about $US1.4 billion a year in cash flow. Parent company 21st Century Fox is the more profitable Murdoch family controlled company holding valuable entertainment assets that were spun out of News Corporation in 2013.

Former Fox News boss Roger Ailes, who was ousted by 21st Century Fox's chief executive James Murdoch and co-executive chairman Lachlan Murdoch over sexual harassment allegations in July, is informally advising Mr Trump on his campaign and televised debate appearances.

From left, Lachlan, Rupert and James Murdoch, are the key management and director personnel at 21st Century Fox. Dan Steinberg

Rebranded channel

Brett Harriss, a media and entertainment analyst at Gabelli and Company said billionaire Mr Trump could buy a loss-making network for as little as $US200 million and rebrand it the Trump channel.

"It could be the more conservative version of Fox News," Mr Harriss said.


"He is enormously popular with a small subset of the population but consumer habit with cable channels like Fox is pretty well ingrained."

"It's certainly a risk but I wouldn't be shaking in my boots if I were running Fox."

Roger Ailes was pushed out of Fox News in July. AP

Barriers to entry in the pay television industry have lowered in recent years, thanks to intense competition from internet subscription TV providers including Netflix and Amazon. So-called "cord cutting" has led to the peak subscription audience of almost 100 million declining at a pace of 1-2 per cent a year, cutting any purchase price Mr Trump would need to pay to take over an existing channel.

Sinclair Broadcast Group paid $US350 million this year for the Tennis Channel, while Madison Square Garden Co sold 85 per cent of music-focused cable channel Fuse network to SiTV Media for $US226 million in 2014, or about $US4 per subscriber.

Mr Trump is sliding in the opinion polls in the wake of a series of sexual misconduct allegations by women and his rhetoric is growing more inflammatory.

As he rallies his diehard base of unyielding backers by claiming the election is "rigged" by the media and Clinton campaign and he threatens not to accept the result, some political analysts believe the Republican nominee has dashed any chance of winning and is instead laying the groundwork for his next business venture.

Stephen Bannon, head of Breitbart news, was named Trump's new campaign CEO in August. AP


"They are looking at post election, because I think they are not going to win this," Rick Tyler, a former campaign manager for Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz, said on CNBC.

"Everything points to a third party [TV] network."

'False rumour'

Mr Trump's campaign chief, Stephen Breitbart, is a digital media entrepreneur who operates the populist conservative Breitbart News Network blog and website. It advocates white, nationalist rhetoric in a similar fashion to Mr Trump's dire oratory.

"We're the platform for the alt-right." Mr Bannon reportedly said in July.

Mr Trump, a former celebrity host of TV show The Apprentice, has built a campaign on his high profile and through rallying a huge audience at campaign events and in national television appearances. He said in an interview last month it was a "false rumour" he wanted to start a media company.

If he broke his word and proceeded, Mr Trump would need to attract other appealing talent to fill a 24-hour news network that would undoubtedly be intensely anti-Hillary Clinton and probably be critical of the Republican Party's establishment wing.

While Mr Ailes' $US40 million golden parachute agreement with Fox reportedly contained a non-compete clause, some of the network's highly-paid stars and Trump supporters, Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly, are said to have clauses in their contracts allowing them to exit News if Mr Ailes departed.


Mr Ailes, a former Republican operative who worked as an adviser to president Richard Nixon, was the brains behind the cultural and media institution For News that was launched by him under Rupert Murdoch in 1996.

The risk for the Murdoch family's Fox is that a Trump network could poach their biggest drawing commentators and viewers.

Following a spat with Fox News host Megyn Kelly, Mr Trump boycotted the network's Republican presidential primary debate in January and held a rally in Iowa that was broadcast by rival stations. The Trump-less debate averaged 12.5 million viewers, the second-lowest audience of the seven Republican debates at that point.



Fox's Mr Hannity, a populist commentator who reportedly earns $US30 million a year, has admitted he is not a journalist. He is an unashamed apologist for Mr Trump.

Fox show for Trump?

21st Century Fox chief James Murdoch is much more politically centrist than Fox News' rightwing culture and does not have close relations with some of network's conservative stars.

When contemplating sacking Mr Ailes, Rupert Murdoch considered the risks of losing the Fox News inventor's loyalists like Messrs Hannity and O'Reilly.

To limit any ructions Rupert Murdoch in July installed himself as the network's boss.

In August he named Fox Television Stations chief Jack Abernethy and senior executive vice president Bill Shine would serve as co-presidents of Fox News.


21st Century Fox's share price has lost 16 per cent over the last 12 months. Its share price was broadly flat in New York in intraday trade on Monday afternoon.

One hypothetical possibility post the election might be that Fox offers Mr Trump his own television show, a move that would avoid him becoming a competitor and save Mr Trump a big investment and managing a network.

The real estate mogul has a history of licensing his own famous name to make money. He marketed Trump-branded steaks and water during the Republican primaries this year.

Talk show host Oprah Winfrey and Discovery Communications formed The Oprah Winfrey Network joint venture in 2009. Discovery stumped up a large share of the investment to leverage off Oprah's famous brand.

Rich Tullo, technology, media and telecommunications director of research at stockbroker Albert Fried and Company, said Mr Trump would need to outlay $US300 million to $US500 million to buy a fully distributed cable network and commit to a follow-on investment of $US200 million to $US1 billion to be successful.