The success of Fox News in the US mirrors that of Murdoch's Sky News victory in the UK over the BBC. More than three times as many viewers are watching Sky's coverage of the war than are watching BBC News 24.
Both the BBC and CNN have also been hit by the growing number of Arabs in Europe who have been switching to controversial Arab satellite news station Al Jazeera, which yesterday saw two of its reporters banned from the New York Stock Exchange.
The NYSE said the move was because of space, but it did not deny that it might have been connected to the Arab station's broadcast of US prisoners of war, who were shown being manhandled by Iraqi military on state television.
Fox News has averaged 4.16m viewers each day, compared with CNN's 3.74m. However, Fox News has been the number one US news network for more than a year before the war's commencement on March 19. Behind the two leaders is MSNBC, which is reported to be attracting an average 1.76m audience for its war coverage.
In the UK, Fox sister station Sky News's reach was 6.3m, compared with BBC News 24's reach of 3.7m.
However, like the war itself, nothing is yet final and there is still opportunity for CNN to match or beat rival Fox as it has done on odd occasions in recent months, most notably on February 1, when the space shuttle Columbia was tragically destroyed on its way home.
CNN has downplayed the lead that Fox is enjoying. A spokeswoman for the cable news network said that the Nielsen ratings show that more people at least sample some of CNN's coverage during the day and Fox's ratings are higher because its viewers watch for a longer time.
Many see the dominance of Fox News surprising, considering CNN's experience and success in covering the first Gulf War.
Erik Sorenson, MSNBC president, told Dow Jones: "I think it's a pretty big surprise. I think people thought CNN would win, at least in its early stages. One of the executives there said they would own the story, and I don't think they do."
Some analysts believe the reason that the right-leaning Fox is winning is because its coverage more closely reflects the feeling of the nation, which is increasingly behind George W Bush and US troops.
Fox's coverage is being seen as more positive than that of its rivals, a picture that could be said to be reflected in the UK as well.
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