Fox News, MS NOW and CNN aren’t waiting for cord-cutting to burn down the industry. They’re using the profits and audience loyalty generated by linear TV to build new businesses beyond the traditional cable bundle — from streaming platforms and memberships to podcasts, digital publishing and live events.
The approaches differ. Fox News has been expanding a multiplatform ecosystem that includes Fox Nation, podcasts, books, digital publishing, live events and the Fox One streaming service. MS NOW is betting on a direct-to-consumer membership product centered on community and access to its talent. CNN is building around CNN All Access as part of Warner Bros. Discovery’s broader streaming portfolio — despite its unclear future.
Together, they reflect a broader shift in how media companies increasingly view TV news — not simply as cable channels, but as brands capable of generating revenue well beyond affiliate fees and advertising. This change in perspective isn’t a luxury, but a move made necessary by the upheaval facing linear TV.
“They’re all going on streaming, they’re all going digital,” Jessica Reif Ehrlich, senior media analyst at Bank of America Securities, told TheWrap. “They’re brands that can create more products over time.”
That transition comes as the traditional pay TV business continues to shrink. MoffettNathanson estimates the industry—including virtual distributors such as YouTube TV—ended the first quarter with roughly 62.2 million subscribers after losing just over 2 million customers during the quarter, although subscriber declines have begun to moderate.
Source: Company quarterly earnings reports
Cable news, however, remains resilient. Nielsen’s April Gauge report found news accounted for 29% cable TV viewing — well ahead of cable sports at 9%.
Those seemingly contradictory trends — a shrinking distribution platform paired with remarkably durable audience engagement — help explain why media companies are investing aggressively while the linear business still produces meaningful cash flow.
Fox News: Expanding the Ecosystem
While Fox News Channel remains America’s highest-rated cable news network, Fox Corp. has spent years expanding the brand well beyond television through Fox Nation, digital publishing, podcasts, books, live events and its Fox One streaming service, which launched in August. The cable channel remains the financial engine behind that expansion.
Fox’s Cable Network Programming segment — which includes Fox News — generated $1.74 billion in revenue during the first quarter of 2026, up 6% year over year. Distribution revenue rose 5% as higher affiliate fees offset subscriber declines, while ad revenue also increased 5%. Cable Networks’ earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) reached $884 million, underscoring the cable network’s continued earnings power.
Speaking on Fox’s March 2025 earnings call, CEO Lachlan Murdoch said the company no longer views Fox News “as just a news service,” but as “one of the top five broadcast networks in the United States, even though we don’t have the same distribution that broadcast has.”
Under Fox News Media CEO Suzanne Scott, that philosophy has evolved into a broader consumer media strategy. Fox Nation has evolved from a streaming companion into a subscription business built around documentaries, opinion programming, true-crime series and live events featuring Fox personalities. Fox News Digital extends that relationship through articles, newsletters, podcasts and social video, while Fox News Books and branded events create additional ways for audiences to engage with the brand.
Rather than operating independently, those businesses reinforce one another. Fox News Channel serves as the primary marketing engine, introducing millions of viewers to Fox Nation originals, podcasts, books and live events before ultimately guiding many toward Fox’s direct-to-consumer offerings.
The strategy is already becoming a meaningful business in its own right. Fox News Media projected approximately $500 million in 2025 revenue from businesses outside linear television — including streaming, digital, podcasts and books—and says those operations have delivered double-digit annual growth since 2020 while attracting audiences 30% to 50% younger than traditional television viewers. During the first quarter alone, Fox News Digital generated more than 6.5 billion social media video views, its highest quarterly total on record.
MS NOW: Turning loyalty into membership
At Investor Day last December, MS NOW President Rebecca Kutler told investors the network generated its highest revenue during the past five years despite continued cord-cutting, arguing that audience loyalty and financial performance matter more than Nielsen ratings alone.
That loyalty comes as the traditional TV business faces mounting pressure. In the first quarter, Versant’s distribution revenue declined 7.3% while ad revenue fell 5.2%. At the same time, Platforms revenue increased 9.5% and content licensing revenue more than doubled, illustrating the company’s growing emphasis on businesses beyond linear TV.
Later this year, MS NOW plans to launch its first direct-to-consumer membership offering. Kutler has described it as “not your typical streaming service or just another news subscription,” but rather “a membership community” built around deeper engagement with the network’s talent and journalism. The company wants to lean in on the loyalty aspect rather than just offer a service.
MS NOW said the strategy is already being supported by audience growth beyond traditional television. The network said it was the No. 1 news organization on YouTube in June and has generated more than 2.9 billion combined views across YouTube and TikTok so far this year, while continuing to expand its presence in podcasts and other audio products.
The membership strategy also reflects Versant’s broader transformation beyond cable television. As TheWrap reported, the company has been using cash generated by its legacy cable networks to fund acquisitions and digital investments aimed at reducing its long-term reliance on pay TV revenue. Those investments span sports technology, AI-powered financial tools and free ad-supported streaming, underscoring a strategy of using today’s cable profits to build tomorrow’s businesses.
The goal is to “create more depth in the verticals, get more of our fans’ time and a bigger share of their wallets,” David Pietrycha, Versant’s chief revenue and business officer, told TheWrap.
Rather than viewing cable networks as standalone television channels, Versant increasingly sees brands such as MS NOW as platforms capable of supporting memberships, commerce and recurring consumer relationships.
CNN: Strengthening the streaming portfolio
CNN occupies a different place within its parent company.
Rather than developing a standalone ecosystem comparable to Fox News, Warner Bros. Discovery increasingly positions CNN as one of several premium brands supporting its broader streaming ambitions.
That strategy showed signs of momentum during the first quarter. In the first quarter, CNN’s television and digital platforms delivered 30% year-over-year growth, while linear viewership grew by 35%.
CNN All Access, launched in late 2025, combines live and on-demand news, CNN Originals, premium digital journalism, newsletters and live events into a single subscription offering. Unlike CNN+, its previous attempt at an online subscription service that infamously shut down weeks after its 2022 debut, the product complements Warner Bros. Discovery’s wider streaming strategy rather than attempting to recreate the cable experience as a standalone business.
CNN All Access is designed to complement Warner Bros. Discovery’s wider streaming portfolio rather than operate as a separate replacement for cable.
The company’s broader strategy remains in flux. Paramount’s proposed acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, if completed, could ultimately reshape where CNN fits within a combined media portfolio, though the companies have not publicly detailed how their news assets would be organized.
What’s Next?
The strategies differ, but they’re all aimed at solving the same problem: how to build a sustainable news business beyond the cable bundle.
Fox is leveraging a position of financial strength to expand an existing ecosystem. MS NOW is betting that its most loyal viewers will pay for membership, community and direct access to its journalism and talent. CNN, meanwhile, is using its news brand to strengthen Warner Bros. Discovery’s broader streaming portfolio rather than standing alone.
The harder challenge lies ahead.
Launching a streaming service or membership product is one thing. Convincing consumers to pay for it year after year is another. CNN+ demonstrated that even one of the world’s best-known news brands cannot assume audiences will automatically follow it into a standalone subscription product. Membership businesses also require a constant pipeline of exclusive content, live experiences and direct engagement to justify recurring fees.
For investors, however, the conversation has already begun to change.
Rather than asking how long affiliate fees can continue supporting cable news, Wall Street is increasingly evaluating whether companies are using today’s cash flow to build tomorrow’s businesses. Reif Ehrlich said investors increasingly view successful news organizations less as television channels than as brands capable of supporting multiple businesses across streaming, digital publishing and direct-to-consumer products.
That shift is increasingly reflected in how media companies talk about their financial results. MoffettNathanson noted that executives now emphasize broader distribution revenue — which includes direct-to-consumer businesses — rather than traditional affiliate fees alone.
Reif Ehrlich said investors are increasingly evaluating how companies use today’s linear cash flow to build businesses that can generate future growth beyond traditional television.
The cable bundle still finances Fox News, MS NOW and CNN. But increasingly, it is serving another purpose: funding the transition to whatever comes next.
