Fox Corp. Will launch its direct streaming service to consumers, Fox One, on August 21, before the NFL season, the company announced on Tuesday.
The new streaming service will cost $ 19.99 per month and paying television subscribers will receive access for free, said CEO Lachlan Murdoch when the company’s profits call.
Fox One will welcome the entire Fox TV portfolio – namely live sports such as the NFL and the MLB which appear on its broadcast network, as well as the news programming of its TV networks by Fox News and Fox cable.
Fox broadcast NFL matches on Sunday during the regular season, which is starting this year on September 4. The broadcasting network has also broadcast MLB playoff matches, as well as university football, which also takes place in the fall.
However, the streaming service will not offer any exclusive or original content, said Murdoch, adding that a large part of its costs will result from general costs, marketing and technology. This contrasts with most Fox competitors, who spend on additional sports rights and other exclusive streaming content.
“It is important to remember that our expectations or aspirations of subscribers for Fox One are modest,” said Murdoch.
The company was slower than its peers to jump into the streaming game. Although he already has the Fox Nation Service and Tubi, a free streaming application supported by advertising, he has not yet offered his complete content slate in a direct offer to consumers.
Murdoch previously declared that the cost of the service would be “healthy and not a reduced price”, in order to avoid disturbing the Bundle Pay TV, which has undergone continuous customer losses.
The Fox portfolio is mainly composed of sporting content and news since it sold its entertainment assets in Disney in 2019. This protected Fox from some of the cord -contrary winds that have affected its media peers in recent years.
Tuesday, Murdoch reiterated that the company will seek to bring together Fox One with other streaming services. However, he said that the company would pay attention to this front, in the same way so as not to damage the ecosystem of paid television.
He said that Fox was aware of two factors with regard to the grouping. First of all, to offer the consumer a practical set of its content and potentially precious packages. And second, to keep the service “very concentrated” on a “targeted audience” of these customers without television subscriptions.
“Sometimes these two things conflict with each other. So we want to be very targeted, but we also want to facilitate that our consumers and viewers easily obtain our content, whether in conjunction with other services or not,” said Murdoch.
Earlier this year, Murdoch told investors that Fox would launch his own response to streaming after abandoning his efforts for the coming Sports Streaming, who came.
He will be joined by a new streaming offer from Disney ESPN in the coming weeks. While Disney already offers the ESPN +streaming service, the company will launch a full -service ESPN product directly to the consumer this fall. Disney said earlier that the application would cost $ 29.99 per month. Disney reports its quarterly results on Wednesday.
Tuesday, Fox said total turnover for its last quarter of $ 3.29 billion, up 6% compared to the same period last year.
Although the advertising market was low for media companies, in particular for content outside of live sports, Fox said that its advertising revenues increased by 7%. The company said it was mainly due to Tubi’s growth as well as “stronger ratings and prices”, despite the absence of major football events compared to the quarter of the year.