Don’t expect to see FOX get into the streaming game anytime soon. Eric Shanks isn’t ruling out a direct-to-consumer platform in the future, but the FOX Sports CEO and Executive Producer says the company isn’t in a rush to chase trends.
“It’s kind of like they’re on the green putting, and we’re getting to read their putts on their dime and figure out where that world is going to go without having to put in the sunken costs, probably, that they are,” he said during last week’s CAA World Congress of Sports in New York.
No FOX streaming platform has left one of the company’s marquee events in a very interesting position. The only option for American fans that want to stream World Cup matches next month will be Peacock, which will carry the games in Spanish but not in English.
If the company were to reverse course, it certainly has the live game rights to make an impact in the market. Its deals with the Big Ten, FIFA, Major League Baseball, and the NFL would make its DTC platform a must-have for sports fans.
Shanks says that FOX views the streaming world as a crowded marketplace. He wonders if the growing number of options and rising costs for sports fans will have their tastes swinging back to traditional television.
“We all know there’s too many direct-to-consumer products out there,” he said. “I still feel like at some point there’s going to be definitely a slowing [of streaming services], and maybe I’m so optimistic that I think that people will end up seeing the great value in those pay-TV bundles to come back to it.”
