Fox’s Sunday-afternoon football games and Fox News host Jesse Watters may soon have a new digital home.
Fox Corporation expects to launch a new stand-alone subscription-based streaming service by the end of 2025, as the company, which has resisted the call to plunge millions into developing premium content for broadband audiences, sees new allure in the business. The plan, said Fox Corp. CEO Lachlan Murdoch, would be to launch a new broadband outlet that helps “put our content in front of everybody who wants it on any platform,” and would be “‘holistic of all of our content, sports and news.”
Murdoch said the company believed it could reach a new audience separate from the one that watches Fox properties via cable and broadcast. Fox has “no intent” to drive linear audiences to the service, he said, but rather wanted to reach a demographic that does not subscribe to traditional TV.
“We see the traditional cable bundle as still the most value for our consumers and for the company,” Murdoch said, but the company feels an increasing need to reach “a large population outside the cable bundle.”
Launching the new outlet might create some overlap. Fox already operates Tubi, a free ad-supported streaming outlet that aims for younger audiences via a wide range of programming niches, and offers everything from “Everybody Hates Chris” to “Gilligan’s Island.” Fox will give the service a massive boost later this week when it streams Super Bowl LIX on Tubi, a change in recent strategy that had the gridiron classic appear on Fox Sports’ digital sites.
Fox also backs Fox Nation, a subscription-based outlet that caters to Fox News fans with an increasing array of lifestyle content and documentaries, along with a store of programming from Fox News Channel that is made available after it appears on the cable network.
The maneuver appears to be predicated on the demise of Venu, a streaming joint venture that was backed by Fox, Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery. That outlet would have offered all three companies’ sports line-ups, but was foiled by legal challenges, leaving all three backers to pursue their own strategies. Fox has been reluctant to make its portfolio of sports rights — which includes games from MLB and NFL as well as LIV Golf — available on streaming services, choosing not to upset the lines of revenue it generates from assembling linear audiences.
Murdoch said the company had “modest” expectations for the new stand-alone service, and said Fox would not ramp up investment in new rights or content. The service “will package existing content and existing brands,” he said, and the cost will be “relatively low.”
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