Fox News to launch a streaming TV service this year

Aimed at "superfans" of the cable news network, Fox News will roll out a standalone service that even pay-TV subscribers must cough up extra to watch.

Joan E. Solsman Former Senior Reporter

Joan E. Solsman was CNET's senior media reporter, covering the intersection of entertainment and technology. She's reported from locations spanning from Disneyland to Serbian refugee camps, and she previously wrote for Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal. She bikes to get almost everywhere and has been doored only once.

Expertise Streaming video, film, television and music; virtual, augmented and mixed reality; deep fakes and synthetic media; content moderation and misinformation online Credentials

Three Folio Eddie award wins: 2018 science & technology writing (Cartoon bunnies are hacking your brain), 2021 analysis (Deepfakes' election threat isn't what you'd think) and 2022 culture article (Apple's CODA Takes You Into an Inner World of Sign)

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Joan E. Solsman

Feb. 20, 2018 10:36 a.m. PT

2 min read

Fox News channel will launch a paid streaming service by the end of the year.

Getty

Fox News plans to launch a digital subscription video service called Fox Nation as a paid supplement to its cable news network, the company said Tuesday.

Described by Fox as a "standalone opinion streaming service," the service will announce pricing later, ahead of its debut in the last three months of the year.

Fox said the service will feature daily live-streaming and long-form shows, plus more than 20 years of archival Fox News Channel programming. The service will also offer interaction with all of the network's opinion hosts and offer subscribers access to exclusive events.

The plans were reported earlier by the New York Times.

The move puts Fox News on a growing list of companies exploring virtual TV as an outlet to increase business with its most loyal viewers. For example, Disney plans to launch a $4.99-a-month ESPN-linked streaming service in spring. However, the virtual TV landscape is already littered with entertainment brands that tried to lure fans into becoming paid subscribers by launching their own versions of Netflix, such as Comic Con, digital video heavyweight Fullscreen and NBC comedy app Seeso.

John Finley, Fox News Channel's senior vice president of development and production, said in a statement that Fox News "superfans" represent the "most loyal audience in cable, if not all of television."

"This initiative will capitalize on providing that viewer, who is among the most affluent and well educated in cable, with a highly specialized content experience on a platform they can watch anytime, anywhere," he said.

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