Murdoch targets 5 Million subscribers for new sports venture

Fox Corp. Chief Executive Officer Lachlan Murdoch said the new sports streaming service he’ll launch later this year with Walt Disney Co. and Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. is projected to reach 5 million subscribers after five years.

Murdoch, speaking at the Morgan Stanley technology, media and telecom conference on Monday, said the service is aimed at customers who don’t currently subscribe to cable channels.

“We think it’s a very good business for us,” Murdoch said. “Overall, these subscribers are incremental to our base.”

The companies announced plans last month to offer the new, unnamed service, starting later this year. It will feature all of the sports programming from the three media giants, including ESPN, Fox Sports 1 and channels such as TNT.

Australia’s Kayo Sports service was the inspiration. That service, introduced in 2018, has 1.5 million subscribers, “pretty good penetration” for a country with a smaller population, Murdoch said.

The Australian service is from Foxtel, part of Murdoch’s News Corp., and offers about 90% of the sports watched in the country, he said. It starts at A$25 ($16) a month. The US venture will cost more because the sports rights cost more, Murdoch said. Bloomberg