Fox News wants its biggest fans to sign up for a streaming service called “Fox Nation.”
The network is preparing to announce the new product on Tuesday morning, according to The New York Times.
The Times said it will be a “stand-alone subscription service available without a cable package.”
The online channel is expected to start “by the end of the year,” according to the report. The content will consist primarily of “right-leaning commentary, with original shows and cameos by popular personalities like Sean Hannity.”
A Fox News spokeswoman declined to comment ahead of Tuesday’s announcement.
But the Times story quoted John Finley, a senior vice president at the network, as saying that the “Fox Nation” service is “designed to appeal to the Fox superfan,” the “folks who watch Fox News every night for hours at a time, the dedicated audience that really wants more of what we have to offer.”
Fox’s existing contracts with cable and satellite providers limit how much it can stream shows like “Fox & Friends,” “Special Report” and “Hannity.” So the new product will have new programs.
“Fox Nation” is the product that the executives had in mind when they hired Tomi Lahren, a stand-out social media commentator, last summer.
At the time, the network said Lahren would have a “signature role on an FNC digital product currently in development.”
Lahren and other Fox personalities will create programming for the streaming service.
“Fox Nation” is currently the name of the company’s conservative opinion site. On Monday night, the site was temporarily taken offline. Now it just says “coming soon,” ahead of the official announcement on Tuesday.
According to the Times, Fox is still determining how much it will charge for a subscription.
Fox’s parent company 21st Century Fox is just like many other media companies. The executives are exploring new business models that take advantage of the direct-to-consumer attributes of the web.
