Recently news broke that Disney was working on making a streaming version of ESPN that wouldn’t need a cable bundle. When this new project, Flagship, launches, you will be able to subscribe to ESPN directly, as many have wished for.
Now Fox says they have no plans, for now, to follow ESPNs plans and launch a streaming service for Fox News and Fox Sports that will let you skip cable TV and stream these channels.
Recently during Fox’s earnings call, Fox’s Chief Executive Lachlan Murdoch said that cable TV “drives value of Fox Sports and will for a long time to come.”
Right now, Fox News and Fox Sports 1, also known as FS1, are some of the most expensive cable networks. They are also some of the most popular.
Fox already offers streaming brands around its channel, including Fox Nation, which offers a wide range of content, including additional news content not offered on Fox News. For now, though, it seems that Fox has no plans to offer a way to subscribe directly to its networks without cable TV but still watch the same feed.
At this time, Fox is still able to keep its revenues even as cord cutting grows. Fox’s most recent earnings report shows revenues remained flat at $3.03 billion thanks to higher cable TV fees offsetting a drop in advertising revenue.
As long as Fox is able to continue to keep its revenues thanks to higher cable TV fees, it seems nothing will be changing. If that would ever change, that could push Fox to follow’s Disney’s footsteps and prepare a streaming service for Fox News and Fox Sports. The question now may be when that will happen not if cable TV revenues will reach a point that they become unsustainable.