Fox One Streaming Service Deals a Heavy Blow to Traditional Cable TV

The decline of cable television receives another significant setback with the upcoming launch of Fox One. Set to debut on August 21, this streaming platform offers a monthly subscription of $19.99, granting access to a broad range of Fox channels, including the Fox Network, Fox News, Fox Business, Fox Weather, Fox Sports, FS1, FS2, Fox Deportes, the Big Ten Network, and local Fox stations. This development means that two major attractions previously exclusive to pay TV—namely, Fox News and live sports broadcasts—will soon be available via streaming services. Historically, Fox has been hesitant to fully embrace streaming, partly because of the lucrative carriage fees it received from cable and satellite providers, as well as bundled streaming packages, which effectively subsidized less profitable networks. Carriage fees are payments that cable companies make to network owners for the right to carry their channels. These fees contribute significantly to the high costs of cable bills, which often include dozens of channels viewers rarely watch, such as CNN, MTV, and MSNBC. These networks rely heavily on carriage fees to sustain operations since their advertising revenue alone would ...