None of the "amateurish" challengers to the Murdochs' cash-cow TV channel has the resources to compete, leaving a door open for a well-funded conglomerate (say, ViacomCBS) to roll the dice.
Shari Redstone has denied plans to launch a conservative-leaning TV channel to battle Fox News, but the mogul’s Viacom dipped its toe into the space Oct. 15. That day, the company’s Pluto TV free streaming service — which Viacom bought in March for $340 million and has 18 million users — debuted a beta version of channel The First, featuring right-wing talkers Buck Sexton and Jesse Kelly.
Not exactly the name recognition of Fox News’ Sean Hannity or Tucker Carlson, but The First is set to add three more shows by January when it officially enters a crowded space that includes BlazeTV, Newsmax TV, One America News Network, Daily Wire, Breitbart News and Salem Media Group, all of which are positioning themselves as an alternative to Fox News, which — despite its aging linear audience — makes roughly $1.3 billion a year for its Fox Corp. parent.
For context, Disney’s entire broadcast business, which includes ABC (but not ESPN), makes about what Fox News does each year. The channel is also extremely influential, given that 19 percent of voters in the last presidential election called it their primary news source, ahead of CNN, Facebook, local TV stations, all broadcast networks and every major newspaper, according to Pew Research. And, per SNL Kagan, Fox News also gets $1.65 per TV subscriber compared with 96 cents for CNN and 29 cents for MSNBC.
It raises the question: Why hasn’t another TV conglomerate pulled the trigger on a competitor with wide cable distribution?
The most likely answer: The entry barrier is steep. Fox News spent an estimated $80 million a year on the operation in the early years after its 1996 launch, in addition to paying carriers $11 per subscriber to carry the channel, with 17 million subs at launch.
