Fox One has gotten off to a strong start since launching last August, drawing 2.3 million subscribers through October 30, according to data released Tuesday by research firm Antenna.
While Fox One is offered as part of bundles with ESPN’s Unlimited service as well as corporate sibling Fox Nation, 99% of initial subscribers signed up for Fox One as a stand-alone service.
ESPN’s newly fortified streaming service, which launched on August 21, the same day as Fox One, has racked up 3 million subscribers. That tally includes 1.7 million on the Unlimited tier, which includes more than a dozen linear network feeds along with streaming-only fare.
Both Fox One and ESPN are on the high end of the pricing scale, at $19.99 and an introductory rate of $34.99 a month, respectively.
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Unlike ESPN, which is focused on direct-to-consumer subscriptions and bundles with Disney+ and Hulu, Fox is relying on Amazon Channels to drive its growth. Antenna said 57% of subscribers came in via Amazon. The No. 2 pathway for Fox One has been direct sign-ups, at 27%, compared with 85% DTC for ESPN.
Fox execs have declined to offer any subscriber projections for Fox One, describing it as a complement to the company’s still-viable linear network business. While the company long resisted jumping into subscription streaming with its media peers, it ultimately determined that cord-cutting was taking a big enough toll to justify a streaming alternative.
Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch went out of his way to acknowledge Amazon’s role on the company’s most recent earnings call with Wall Street analysts. “Kudos to everyone at Amazon, from [CEO] Andrew Jassy down, for their tremendous and brilliant support of the service,” he said. “You all have done just a tremendous job.”
Debate has continued in recent years about the strategy of ceding control to Big Tech distribution partners like Amazon. In general, programmers surrender data and the consumer relationship in exchange for subscriber growth, though champions of the strategy see it as a way to reach broad scale, which is crucial for advertisers.
Antenna sources its data from millions of permission-based, consumer opt-in, raw transaction records from digital purchase and cancellation receipts, consumer subscription signals, credit, debit and banking data. The company cleans and models the raw data and then makes adjustments for demographics and behavior.