Fox Corp. said Tuesday its flagship subscription streaming outlet Fox One will launch August 21 at a monthly price of $19.99.
CEO Lachlan Murdoch included the news in his prepared remarks on the company’s fiscal fourth quarter earnings call. The company earlier had reported better-than-expected results for the April-to-June period, driven largely by advertising gains.
Fox had stepped forward with a streaming announcement earlier this year, but had withheld pricing and launch details. The $19.99 price point was at the low end of most industry and Wall Street projections.
‘Fox One is a truly innovative digital offering,” Murdoch said. Pete Distad, a longtime former Apple exec who had been leading Venu Sports before the Fox-involved joint venture folded this year ahead of its launch, is overseeing the rollout of Fox One.
The service “will be marketed to the cordless market,” Murdoch said, alluding to cord-cutters and cord-nevers, but it also will be made available at no extra charge to pay-TV subscribers.
A broad swath of news, sports and entertainment programming will be part of the new service. Fox has not indicated whether it will make any programming expressly for Fox One.
Since embarking on its present corporate course after the acquisition of 21st Century Fox by Disney, Fox Corp. had steadfastly avoided getting into the streaming wars, opting instead to acquire ad-driven free service Tubi. Having seen success with niche service Fox Nation, the company shifted its strategy earlier this year, announcing in May its plans to offer a streaming alternative as the overall marketplace continues to make up for linear declines.
“We will be offering bundling opportunities that make sense to achieve out targeted objectives,” Murdoch said. As the company has previously noted, Murdoch added, “our aspitations are modest and are measured in the investment toward this initiative will match those long-term goals.”
