Isaiah Washington is launching a cooking show on Fox Nation.
Fox News is considering launching a live linear feed of Fox Nation, its year-old subscription OTT platform that features a mix of original and repurposed shows for streaming and some live events.
“People like live,” said John Finley, EVP of Development for Fox News and head of Fox Nation, on the sidelines of a conference in New York Wednesday. He didn’t elaborate on timing. He said nothing had been decided.
Fox News hasn’t released the number for Fox Nation subscriptions so far but said they’ve surpassed internal projections. Some 80% of viewers who sign up for a free trial end up subscribing and the churn rate, or people dropping out, is low.
The service, which costs $65 a year, has produced 700 hours of original content, often with FNC talent, in its first year, Finley said.
Speaking on a panel with digital news executives from NBC, ABC and CBS at the TV of Tomorrow Conference (TVOT), Finley said Fox Nation deliberately veers away from politics to focus on alternative programing.
“Where we have landed now is that what the audience seems to want out of Fox Nation … is not news channel programming but [something] complementary from a sort of values perspective,” Finley said.
“When they are tired of watching coverage of impeachment and Donald Trump, they want [Fox] News Channel talent doing history or other” kinds of content.
Shows include What Made America Great, where host Brian Kilmeade explores pivotal places that shaped the nation; Scandalous, a historical documentary series looking at famous Washington, D.C scandals; and Ainsley’s Bible Study with Ainsley Earhardt. Kilmeade and Earhardt are co-hosts of FNC’s morning show Fox & Friends. Legal commentator Nancy Grace recently signed on for a crime series, former Grey’s Anatomy star Isaiah Washington for a cooking show, and former 60 Minutes correspondent Lara Logan for a four part series No Agenda with Lara Logan on media bias, immigration, socialism and veterans.
NBC News Now, ABC News Live and CBSN — all in various stages of development, already use live feeds.
“We want to make it super easy for people to connect with national, live, breaking news and live events,” said Kaizar Capwala, VP of Insights and Operations, ABC News. “What has been playing out is a growing cohort of cord cutters and cord nevers who still want to connect with breaking news.”
“Live events are big, big deal,” agreed Chris Berend, EVP of Digital, NBC News. NBC News Now, in its third iteration, was relaunched last summer. “There is a reason to bother consumers when there is something actually happening, which is different than 24-hour cable news. We could take more live events than a traditional cable channel and potentially let that play out a little bit more.”
He’s said he’s found the OTT audience prefers straight news. “When we have veered a little bit to the left … we get feedback immediately saying, ‘We don’t want that.’”
Asked about NBC News’ partnership with Jeffrey Katzenberg’s short-form content producer Quibi, he said NBC News “will learn a lot.”
The network will be producing six-minute newscasts twice daily for Quibi, tapping NBC News Now for breaking news. “We entered a relationship with a world class producer on an innovative project and have worked on a budget that we think is first class. We are not skimping,” Berend said. The idea is it will “stand up to any other product we are producing including live television.”
