News corporations are the tools of the billionaire class. It's a way for billionaires to dump money to propagandize the masses. I don't think it was always this way, but it's been like that for at least 100 years (yellow journalism). The newscorps don't really care about ratings because they get money infused from other sources. They DO care about advertisements, which are reflected in ratings, but even that is more on an industrial scale than any independent advertisement (which is why they shill for big pharma so hard).
News corporations are the tools of the billionaire class. It's a way for billionaires to dump money to propagandize the masses. I don't think it was always this way, but it's been like that for at least 100 years (yellow journalism). The newscorps don't really care about ratings because they get money infused from other sources. They DO care about advertisements, which are reflected in ratings, but even that is more on an industrial scale than any independent advertisement (which is why they shill for big pharma so hard).
"Advertising" could just be shuffling money around, or payments for services rendered.