• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, March 5, 2025

Calm down those alarm bells that Fox Corp. might be joining the big legacy owned premium streaming platform business -- one that wants to bring in 50 million or more streaming customers.

Clearing up initial news reports, Fox Corp. CEO Lachlan Murdoch said at an industry event that the company is looking at a streaming service in much more modest terms -- like around 5 to 6 million subscribers.

The platform would be a broad-base content entertainment streaming service that really complements businesses like Fox Television Network and other Fox-owned businesses.

Legacy owned streamers -- Paramount+, Disney+, Peacock, Max -- are structured to eventually replace in large part what big media has with broadcast and cable networks.

Fox Corp.'s history with streaming backs this up -- and tells a different story than its big media competitors. The seven-year-old Fox Nation, for example, is a modest player -- with around 2.5 million to 3.0 million subscribers.

Murdoch says Fox’s effort is really about building streaming platforms for people who have completely cut their cable cords or those who never had cable in the first place.

All this would be kind of similar to the failed-to-launch venture Venu Sports, he says -- the joint venture of Walt Disney, Fox Corp. and Warner Bros. Discovery that is looking to garner just sports-focused subscribers, perhaps amid a targeted audience of 40 million or so consumers. Even then, initially, Venu Sports was only estimating around 5 million subscribers in the first few years of operation.

Murdoch believes - even now-- cable TV networks represent an incredible value proposition to consumers.

To an extent we can understand Murdoch's side of the story -- that its cable TV network, Fox News Channel continues to thrive -- and more recently after the Presidential election. Murdoch says it has 100 new clients since the election.

Fox News commands 65% of all cable TV news viewing, with ratings now 50% higher.

Overall, Fox News Channel is just one legacy cable TV network player -- but dominant piece -- of the overall cable TV business.

Fox Corp. is working in a small but vigorous area of the TV ecosystem with all its platforms -- news and sports primarily. It has the NFL, Major League Baseball, and other sports on the Fox Television Network and Fox Sports cable. For the most part, it has a select number of games and content on their biggest costly acquisitions.

In this TV ecosystem, the future is about not being competitive in big, broad content areas -- but dominating in micro-targeting areas.

In other words, pick your sports -- and spots.