MS NOW, the cable news channel owned by Versant, is moving forward with plans to launch a subscription product that brings its linear channel and related programming directly to its viewers without the need for cable or satellite service.
The plan, called MS NOW Membership, will cost $8 per month or $80 per year and include a streaming simulcast of its cable network with additional digital offerings, the channel said in a press release.
The price makes MS NOW one of the more-expensive ways to watch a streaming cable simulcast without a dedicated pay TV plan. By comparison, CNN’s All Access plan costs $7 per month while Newsmax charges $5 per month for its Newsmax Plus subscription. MS NOW is still cheaper than Fox One, which includes the Fox News Channel at a cost of $20 per month. (Fox Nation does not include live access to Fox News, except when bundled with Fox One or authenticated with a separate pay TV subscription.)
Programming aside, MS NOW Membership promises to offer direct access to MS NOW journalists, community features for members, original creator content, new contributors and verticals focused on the connection between politics, news and everyday life, the channel said.
Versant first teased its membership offering in December, promising viewers an opportunity to engage at a deeper level with its cable TV programming and on-air talent.
MS NOW President Rebecca Kutler said the product is part of the organization’s long-term plan to build a deeper connection with audiences.
“From the beginning, we’ve approached this deliberately,” Kutler said in a statement. “When we launched MS NOW, our ‘We the People’ campaign was never just a tagline. Our mission has always been to inform, engage and empower our audience.”
The membership product was shaped by consumer research into what viewers wanted from a news experience beyond traditional programing, Kutler affirmed.
“Our membership is the first step in a long-term strategy to deepen our relationship with audiences in ways that build on what they already value about MS NOW, while addressing what consumers told us was missing from the news experience,” Kutler said.
MS NOW has experimented with digital and streaming extensions before, including earlier MSNBC-branded streaming projects and programming for Peacock before Comcast separated Versant from NBC Universal. The new membership product represents a more formal effort to build a paid digital relationship around MS NOW’s anchors, reporters and audience community.
MS NOW said the launch follows strong engagement across other platforms: According to data provided by the channel, more than 3.2 billion viewers were logged across its YouTube and TikTok channels so far this year, and its podcasts have been downloaded more than 80 million times.
On its flagship cable channel, the typical viewer spends more than nine hours per week watching live news and commentary programs, according to MS NOW data. Comscore Content Measurement shows less than 10 percent overlap between its television and digital audiences, suggesting the membership product could reach viewers who do not regularly watch the linear channel, the network affirmed.
