Fox Corporation has unveiled the name for its forthcoming direct-to-consumer streaming service that will offer the company’s broadcast and cable channels beyond a traditional pay TV bundle.
Fox One will include live access to Fox-owned cable networks, among them Fox News Channel, Fox Business Network, Fox Sports 1, Fox Sports 2 and Fox Weather, as well as the Big Ten Network, Fox Deportes and local Fox-owned stations. The company is also readying plans to offer local Fox affiliates through the service, though doing so requires agreements with the independent owners of those affiliated stations, which Fox is still working through, according to a source familiar with the development of the platform.
The Fox One streaming service will also allow subscribers to bundle Fox Nation within the platform, a spokesperson confirmed on Monday. No pricing was revealed; The Desk previously reported that Fox executives were considering a starting price of around $20 per month. The Fox One name was first mentioned last week during a presentation at the IAB NewFronts by executives from Fox-owned streaming service Tubi, and formally announced on Monday as part of Fox’s fiscal third quarter earnings report.
Fox One is built on the same underlying technology stack as Venu Sports, the sports-focused streaming service Fox was developing through a joint venture with the Walt Disney Company and Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) until the partnership was effectively sued out of existence. Pete Distad, the former CEO of Venu Sports, has moved to Fox on a full-time basis as the lead executive in charge of Fox One.
“We know that Fox has the most loyal and engaged audiences in the industry, and Fox One is designed to reach outside of the pay-TV bundle and deliver all the best Fox branded content directly to viewers wherever they are,” Distad said on Monday. “We have built this platform from the ground up to allow consumers to enjoy and engage with our programming in new and exciting ways, leveraging cutting edge technology to enhance the user experience across the platform.”
Fox intends to develop and launch the service in time for the start of the National Football League’s (NFL) regular season this fall, though a precise debut date has not yet been revealed. It will mark the second time that Fox has offered its own streaming service, with Fox Nation serving as the first example, and the first time Fox’s linear channels have been sold through a network-owned streaming service outside the pay TV bundle.
That said, executives still believe the cable bundle drives the best return on the investments Fox makes in news and sports. Like its peers, Fox charges fees to cable and satellite companies for the distribution of its channels and networks, and executives don’t want Fox One to disrup what has become a bigger part of the company’s business over the past few years.
“From a pricing standpoint, we’re going to respect the wholesale arrangements we have with the current distributors,” Fox’s Chief Operating Officer John Nallen said at an industry conference two months ago. “So, you won’t see us competing from a pricing standpoint with the traditional distributors. From a content standpoint, there will be nothing exclusive on it — so, whatever the traditional distributors are offering their consumers, we’ll be offering the cordless community, which is where we’re pointed to on this DTC (direct-to-consumer) service.”
