Fox News Faces Headaches As Cord Cutting Kills Off Its Artificially Inflated Subscriber Totals
from the tick-tock dept
We just got done noting how there’s not much the federal government can do about right wing propaganda outlets like Fox News, given their protections under the First Amendment and the general limitations (both legally and courageously) at regulators like the FCC.
But there is one thing that’s likely to cause some serious trouble for Fox News’: the continuing rise of cord cutting. A huge chunk of Fox News’ revenues technically come from consumers that don’t actually watch the channel, but pay for it through traditional, dated cable TV channel bundles.
Of the 70 million or so traditional cable TV subscribers, only about 17 percent of those actually watch Fox. Despite very often not even being watched, Fox nabs $1.8 billion a year — about fifty percent more than it makes off of advertising — from simply having its channel in a cable lineup.
But there’s trouble in paradise. Cable TV cord cutting (ditching traditional cable bundles in favor of streaming or over the air broadcasts) set new records in the first quarter, with U.S. pay-TV subscriptions falling to their lowest level since 1992.
Between this, Fox News’ various defamation cases, the scandals caused by their former 8PM slot bigot and propagandist, and the erosion of market share at the hands of even shittier right wing propaganda channels (OANN, NewsMax), Wall Street investors are starting to get a bit nervous. Especially as “must watch” sports channels like ESPN more heavily embrace streaming:
“Fox News’s share of conservative news viewers is down to 84% from 94%. Cahall also noted that Fox gets 50% of its revenue from affiliate fees. He sees cord-cutting as reducing pay TV subscribers by 7% to 8% this year. He adds that if ESPN goes direct-to-consumer, cord-cutting could accelerate.”
As Cable TV continues to die, Fox News faces some significant hurdles. While outlets like OANN and Fox enjoy a ton of coverage regarding their influence, the vast majority of consumers really aren’t interested. The traditional, bloated, overpriced channel bundle has historically helped mask that fact, but as streaming choice expands, reality could provide a pretty ugly wake up call.
That still doesn’t fix the broader problem of right wing propaganda posing as news, but expanded consumer options will make it clear that most folks (especially younger Americans) genuinely don’t want to play racist conspiracy theory pseudo-news patty cake. With the party’s older voting blocks dying off, the Trump GOP will need to develop new ways to trick Americans into voting against their best interests.
Filed Under: cable bundles, cable news, cordcutting, fox news, propaganda, right wing, streaming, video
Companies: fox, fox news
Comments on “Fox News Faces Headaches As Cord Cutting Kills Off Its Artificially Inflated Subscriber Totals”
This is the only ethical action.
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This is the only ethical action.
schadenfreude?
Couldn’t happen to a more deserving organisation.
Serve shit to the audience, don’t be surprised when that audience turns off when given the opportunity.
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I…think you may have misunderstood why Fox News viewers are switching to OANN and Newsmax.
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I find myself looking for the “sad because true” button more and more…
Re: Re: is there a news business anymore?
It doesn’t seem that people want news. They certainly aren’t willing to pay for news. They pay for something I call “bias confirmation services.” They want to be assured they are right and their enemies are wrong.
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“bias confirmation services”. That would be funny, if it weren’t so insightfully true.
Re: Re: Re: Soothe the conscious
I’d use the old Bible term “soothsayers,” but that’s just me.
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I mean, you’re the guy without an “Insider” badge, hoss.
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I think people are willing to pay for news. See the growing popularity of Substack, Medium et al paid-blogging services. Most podcasts are free, and produce very good news and analysis pieces.
There’s also no such thing as bias-free journalism. Every narrative is the collective bias of every person contributing to it, from the reporter to the editor to the production to the institution. We think of bias as coded for Red Tribe/Blue Tribe, but bias encompasses everything from the education, work experience and lived experience of every person involved in the narrative — as well as the absence of those experiences.
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The likes of Substack also demonstrate that what reporters need are people to take care of administrative tasks, like run the servers and manage subscriptions. Some might even be prepared to pay for an editor to do spelling, grammar and similar checks on their work. This shows that reporters can make a living without the news organizations, while those organizations cannot live (for long) without some reporters and editors.
Re: Re: Nope
I think you missed the point that nobody is watching any of it. Young people look away as the old viewers die. Game over
Will fox News demand that Amazon and Netflix etc. subsidize them because they are stealing what use to be their captive subscribers. I can see the demand now as Make big streaming pay for video news.
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I think Fox News would try—and ultimately fail.
Re: they can try...
How is Fox going to “demand” that? I anticipate peals of laughter from the direction of Amazon and Netflix HQs.
The streaming audience doesn’t seem to care about news at all. Netflix could have started their own news operation long before now, exclusive to Netflix. Why didn’t they? I bet they looked into it and realized that it wasn’t worth the bother.
Re: Re: and speaking of that...
Remember when Disney bought Fox, well the parts they wanted. Entertainment assets, but they left the news operation behind. They knew, just like Netflix knows, that news isn’t really worth bothering with for the streaming audience. That was when I really knew, Fox News is doomed. Nobody wanted to buy it even years ago and it’s not getting any more attractive as the audience continues to die off.
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By the same logic that Newspapers demand a link task, that they are a ‘news’ service and should be kept alive.
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You might be right, nerdrage.
I still have cable, and one of the news channels I actually like is my market’s Spectrum One news.
It’s very good at covering local politics and doing longform pieces like the top story on “Last Week Tonight.” It’s also refreshingly boring, in a good way. I don’t get that feeling that the news directors are trying to eat my amygdala the way Fox, MSNBC and CNN are.
Alas, I don’t think anyone other than me or about a hundred people (out of a million) are watching this, and I think it’s probably a big cost center for Spectrum that sees no payoff.
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I also watch Spectrum news every so often. And you’re right that it’s boring. But news is supposed to be boring! News is NOT supposed to be entertainment and it’s not supposed to create hysterical emotions. Sure, you might get upset about a news story or you might want to take action, but real news doesn’t create a “those other people are terrible” attitude.
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“The streaming audience doesn’t seem to care about news at all”
They do, they just don’t care about the old school ways of consuming it.
Which is why it’s a concern right now. Fox is a well-known biased propaganda outlet, but rather than realise they were being lied to, some of their old viewers have been moving to further biased outlets, be they podcasts, Twitter, whatever.
But, most people will consume news where they are already. In the modern era that might not mean defaulting to whichever newspaper gets delivered or the cable network their parents tuned in to, but I don’t think they don’t care. There’s just more places to get news – which is good and bad. Good because deliberate propaganda isn’t the default choice. Bad because deliberate propaganda is more available.
Depends on your definition of “news”. Hasan Minaj, for example, had a Netflix show (Patriot Act) where he was essentially trying to do a version of The Daily Show. More informative than the 24/7 news cycle, and “left” leaning perhaps, but it was there.
Rupert's Link Tax.
I assume that Rupert sees the future, and that’s why he’s pushing so hard for link taxes. He’s all about the free money no matter where it comes from.
And nothing of value was lost.
Now let’s speedrun the death of News Corp.
Yes, I know h
There’s a few okayish publishers and TV companies under the banner but all must either burn or get the fuck out.
Get rid of Fox
It’s not a perfect solution, but should be promoted widely:
https://unfoxmycablebox.com/
Fox News death can’t come soon enough. It’s a cancer that will be one of the drivers for global destruction.
The US judicial system will not punish Trump fast enough to prevent this idiot from running for president next elections. That if he is punished at any point in the future.
The electoral system is a joke that allows for all sorts of voter suppression and Republicans know and weaponize this very well.
Any option the GOP throws at us next year will be either terrible or apocalyptic. And far too many Americans will embrace whatever it is.
And unfortunately the US still plays a major role in world geopolitics.
We are so screwed…
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“prevent this idiot from running for president next elections”
maybe maybe maybe
‘Trump Is Disqualified’: Activists Aim to Keep Insurrectionist Off Ballot in Key States
https://www.commondreams.org/news/trump-14th-amendment-january-6
cable news in general is a failure
CNN, MSNBC, Fox, they’re all in the same boat. They get 1M or so viewers, often less. Out of a nation of 320M that’s pathetic. The vast majority of Americans don’t care about cable news across the board. The whole business is dying and I guess people will get their news from ugh social media.
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Cable news has a formula that no one other than cable execs likes, which is why they’re all in the same boat.
2 minutes news
10 minutes commentary by anyone willing to talk into a microphone for free, regardless of credentials or knowledge
3 minutes commercials
Repeat ad nauseam until the heat death of the universe
Not saying social media is any better, just that the death of cable news won’t be much of a tragedy.
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Yeah, this affects all of them.
I understand that fox news is atrocious and has several things going right now that will speed its death buy why is the article focused on them instead of talking about all the companies affected?
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Yes, I pray that someday Karl Bode may write an article about the financial struggles of Time Warner.
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Simple: partisan hackery on the same level as Fox News, just on the other side of the aisle. They support the left side of news and want their propaganda mills to succeed, so they won’t discuss their objective failures in the market. That’s why the article is so mad, they’re mad someone with different views than them exist. This is unfortunately a common view on this website, and for being “free speech advocates” there sure is a lot of writers who want people to think the “right way”.
If we could get actual news, and not clickbait garbage like this, that’d be great Karl.
Voting with our Wallets
I was told that if you don’t like something, don’t support it.
I don’t like the fact that so many of Walmart’s full-time employees rely on Food Stamps and other subsidies in order to survive despite working 40 hours a week for one of the largest corporations in the world, so I don’t buy anything from Walmart.
I don’t like that Amazon has order processors urinating in bottles to meet their performance metrics while being one of the largest corporations in the world, so I don’t buy anything from Amazon.
Sure, that means that I may have to spend a few extra cents or not have the same level of convenience to get the products I need, but that’s a small price to pay to for knowing that my money is not providing positive reinforcement to the worst corporations in the world.
So it stands to reason that, since I don’t want to support media companies that spread hatefulness and propaganda, that I would choose to cut the cord to keep my money out of their hands.
'Look at all the money I can save cutting out worthless channels...'
If the only reason you’re still around as a business is that people have to give you money as part of the deal to get stuff they actually want not only is that a damning condemnation of your product/service but it also means that the second people have the option to cut you out of the loop you’re completely hosed since you’re not providing anything they’re likely to consider worth the money directly.
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I love how you're HORRIFIED free speech exists.
Yeah, you don’t really get to call just anyone you disagree with a “bigot”, that’s the kinda thinking that got Twitter bought.
So….in other words way more than most of the channels in a cable bundle. Cable TV will of course eventually die off but Fox will be a big part of it the whole time, probably a bigger % over time.
And they absolutely get to say shit you don’t like, suck it.
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You first.
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Oh, are you sad that your hero, Fucker “I’m a bigoted liar” Carlson got booted from Fox? Just suck it up. And the thinking behind Twitter buyout, well there wasn’t – something you should be used to.
So…in other words your best is . . . other wording? May all bow down to your towering intellect and ways with words.
You enjoy spitting into the wind, huh? What you fail to understand is that when the channels Fox is bundled with goes pure streaming the value of the bundle goes down which means fewer subscribers and less income for Fox.
As has been said, free speech is a right but consequence-free speech isn’t as Fox have discovered. They repeatedly get sued and have to pony up tens and hundreds of million dollars for airing literal lies. Even those who helped Murdoch create Fox are horrified at the level of shit Fox shovels out, the same shit you happily wallow in because you think its the gospel truth.
You are just another fanatic who rather turn a blind eye to the truth because you are incapable of reason and change.
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I regret to inform you that you should really take your own advice, because…
People are, indeed, voicing their own opinions. With their wallets.
Even Wall Street.
Especially after Rupert Murdoch has been noted, on public record, that he and his execs knowingly let DISINFORMATION air to fleece the jackboots watching them.
So please, SUCK IT.
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You can’t show any examples.
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lmao fuck off
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Matthew M Bennett:
“I love how you’re HORRIFIED free speech exists.”
“Yeah, you don’t really get to call just anyone you disagree with a “bigot”
Interesting .. I am not horrified that you are a bit confused. Free speech exists whether you like it or not.
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Have… you seen what happened since then? The mass exodus, and the issues with bigoted tweets being promoted because they were the only ones paying Musk for the privilege?
I mean, I know who I’m talking to, but calling a current Twitter user a bigot, especially one with a blue checkmark they paid for, isn’t inaccurate for the most part.
Lol – “the Titanic’s sinking but Fox will play the most popular tunes on the way down!”
Why are homophobes always so obsessed with that part of the anatomy? Also, being offensive doesn’t actually mean you’re right about anything, it might just mean you’re an idiot.
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Stay mad die mad
All I have to say is FNC is news as in local 6pm news, it’s has news but is mostly commentary and opinion.
I hope folks can understand.
NotMyProblem
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Nobody ever understands a word you say.
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(and giving The Last Word to your own post is self-indulgent to begin with, but doing it when it’s already the last post on the page anyway is an extra level of WTF.)
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yeah, sometimes type a fast comment and skip proof read.
FNC is NOT news like 6pm local channel.
What the cable ‘news channels’ are is more like a broadcast channel morning show except that the format goes around the clock. All of these channels including CNN are opinion/commentary. There are some fun stuff like comedy late night.
I don’t understand why ‘Fox News Channel is the monster to slay, ever hear the stupid from the other channels? It;s there.
Take some info away and forget the op-ed rants.
That said don’t miss Gutfeld show.
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Gee, I wonder which network made the fucking thing work to begin with?
Surely it’s not CNN and the other, non-Murdoch networks?
All I have to say is FNC is news as in local 6pm news, it’s has news but is mostly commentary and opinion.
I hope folks can understand.
NotMyProblem
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