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Do we need another streaming service? The Murdoch clan seem to think so. This fall, the Fox Corporation is launching its own version of Max in a new streamer it’s calling Fox One — a roll-up of programming from all the Foxes: the broadcast network, News, Business, Weather, Sports, FS1, FS2, BTN, Deportes, and its various local stations. Existing subscribers to this new service will also have the option to bundle the Fox Nation with it in the name of good old ’Murican synergy.
Fox is timing its launch ahead of football season to capture the eyeballs of NFL and college sports fans. It’s been in the works for some time now; Fox teased plans in February to debut its own service after the planned sports streaming bundle Venu officially collapsed in January.
So now we know the timing and this new streamer’s name. (Plus signs crushed! Thank you Google One and Apple One for your leadership.) We also know it’ll have some mix of “live and video on-demand content in a cohesive experience,” per Fox. It’s even got a logo: the word “Fox” and the word “One” stamped next to each other in sequence. But the announcement left us with a few more unanswered questions for the Fox Corporation. The company is mostly keeping quiet on the details but has offered some hints as to their answers.
It’s still TBD, but CEO Lachlan Murdoch explained on Fox’s quarterly earnings call today that “Pricing will be healthy and not a discounted price.” He said on the call that he doesn’t want it to undercut cable deals or lose existing pay-TV customers to the streaming service. If you get Fox through cable, however, you’ll be able to access Fox One for free, Murdoch said: “We do not want to lose a traditional cable subscriber to Fox One.” So for now, don’t think of this as a streaming platform so much as a way Fox will offer Fox stuff to non–cable subscribers à la carte. By comparison, CNBC+ does the same thing for CNBC, and goes for $15 a month as a standalone. We’d be shocked if Fox One is priced anywhere in the single digits.
The logo. Photo: Fox
The company said “the full portfolio of FOX brands,” the channels we mentioned in the first paragraph. But specifics are up in the air right now, and the full mix of programming has yet to be announced. Variety reported earlier this year that Murdoch’s expectations for the streamer were “modest” and that it would “package existing content and existing brands,” so given that this is intended as a post-cable funnel, there’s no reason to expect splashy originals like you might see on Hulu or Netflix.
Shows like The Simpsons, Family Guy, and Bob’s Burgers all fall into this category. So do older shows like Arrested Development and Bones and House and Glee and The O.C. and — damn, Fox has had some great TV over the years. While some of them may show up in live feeds or on-demand on Fox One, licensing them at scale would be expensive. The overwhelming majority of primetime or otherwise iconic shows aren’t actually owned by Fox but by Disney, Sony, or other producers. And again, since Fox isn’t looking to build its own Hulu or Netflix, it doesn’t sound like that stuff will be a priority based on what Murdoch has indicated.
Will Fox One carry the live Fox broadcast-network feed, or will it carry all the local channels — Fox 5 New York, Fox 11 Los Angeles, Fox 32 Chicago, and so forth? Though Fox has indicated that programming from those local stations will appear on Fox One, presumably a string of local affiliate deals have to be negotiated as part of that effort. And if you can livestream programming on, say, Fox 5, can you also stream those same shows on demand? We’ll have to wait for the answers to all of these questions, and to decide whether or not this service will be worth paying for in the end.
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