Fox News Launching SVOD Service for Base Audience
February 20, 2018
Rupert Murdoch helped establish a cable news juggernaut with Fox News. Now he wants Fox News, including notable political pundit Sean Hannity and others, i.e. “Fox & Friends,” to go over-the-top through a standalone subscription streaming service.
Dubbed Fox Nation, the service featuring right-leaning commentary is set to launch at the end of the year. The price of the service has not been disclosed.
Designed to enhance the Fox News viewer experience, Fox Nation will take a deep dive into the big issues of the day with live daily streaming content and long-form programming. Fox Nation will also include access to events and 20 plus years of archival FNC programming. Interaction with all of FNC’s popular opinion hosts and personalities will also be a mainstay of the new platform.
“Fox Nation is designed to appeal to the Fox superfan,” John Finley, head of program development and production at Fox News, told The New York Times. “These are the folks who watch Fox News every night for hours at a time, the dedicated audience that really wants more of what we have to offer.”
The service comes as other media giants seek out SVOD platforms to buttress dwindling pay-TV markets.
Disney, by the second quarter, will launch ESPN Plus, a standalone service intended to compliment ESPN. CBS has more than 2.5 million subs for CBS All Access, in addition to free ad-supported CBSN, featuring news.
Whether Fox News’ older demographic will go for SVOD — which is largely popular among younger audiences, including millennials — remains to be seen.
Finley isn’t worried.
“We know who our audience is. We know what they want,” he said.