A new weather service from Fox News Media will launch next year with a smartphone app and a streaming TV channel, the company said in a statement on Wednesday.
Fox Weather will combine the talent and resources of the Fox News Channel and more than a dozen Fox-owned local TV stations across the country when it rolls out to smartphone users next year.
“Weather is a vital component to news, and [by] combining our trusted reporters and expert meteorologists from Fox News and [Fox-owned broadcast stations], the Fox Weather products will be built to serve our audiences in a customized fashion,” Sharri Berg, an executive in charge of Fox’s owned-and-operated TV stations, said in a statement.
As part of the launch, Berg will take on an additional role in overseeing the streaming weather channel and app on top of her duties running the news division of Fox’s local television stations.
“As Fox News Media continues to deliver the best in news content, it was only natural to expand our footprint to weather with the launch of our eighth platform, Fox Weather,” Suzanne Scott, the chief executive of Fox News Media, said on Wednesday. “There is no one better to lead this new venture than Sharri Berg, [who] is an immensely-talented executive with extraordinary leadership skills and a unique ability to collaborate and execute across multiple devices.”
Fox Weather will be free to access and supported by advertisements, company executives said. It is expected to compete against WeatherNation TV, a streaming weather service found on many ad-supported platforms, as well as the Weather Channel and AccuWeather Network.
The upcoming launch of Fox Weather continues Fox News Media parent company Fox Corporation’s strategy that is laser-focused on streaming platforms as the future of its business.
Earlier this year, Fox Corporation announced its flagship cable news and business channels would be offered globally as a streaming service under the Fox News International brand. The service launched in Mexico on August 20, followed by subsequent rollouts in Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom.
In March, Fox Corporation acquired ad-supported streaming service Tubi TV for $440 million. Two months ago, it integrated live and on-demand news streams from more than a dozen Fox-owned local channels into some of Tubi TV’s smartphone and smart TV apps.
In addition to Tubi TV and Fox News International, Fox’s local TV station division operates NewsNOW on Fox, a 24-hour streaming news channel based out of the company’s Phoenix TV station KSAZ (Channel 10). The service is available on YouTube, Samsung TV Plus and via local station websites. It also operates Fox Nation, an online spin-off of the Fox News Channel that features conservative political commentators with an emphasis on debate over news.
Fox Weather is expected to launch in the second-half of 2021.
