MS NOW is thinking beyond its cable news channel. The network is developing a direct-to-consumer product aimed at two distinct audiences — and President Rebecca Kutler says the strategy reflects years of watching viewer habits shift in real time.
Kutler laid out the vision during an appearance at Axios Live, speaking with Axios media reporter Sara Fischer. The conversation centered on how MS NOW is approaching its next chapter in a fragmented media landscape.
“My thinking has evolved, frankly, over the years, as audience habits have evolved,” said Kutler. “So when we think about our upcoming DTC products, we think about really two groups of fans. We have our current group of what we call our super fans. MS NOW has several million people who are engaging with us nine hours a week. That’s a very high number for linear television. Those are our super fans, and we want to over-deliver for them with this product. We want to give them more engagement and more community.”
But the DTC push isn’t just about rewarding loyal viewers. Kutler made clear the network is equally focused on reaching an entirely different group — one that may never find MS NOW through a cable subscription.
“We have many million more fans that I like to call our future fans,” Kutler said. “They are currently consuming our content in spaces that are not linear television. I’ll just give you one little factoid on YouTube: NBC News, CBS News, and ABC News combined have fewer views than MS NOW. So we’ve built a very, very large audience on a platform like YouTube. We’ve also built a large audience on TikTok.”
The challenge, as Kutler sees it, is converting that digital reach into something more permanent — a destination MS NOW controls.
“We need a place in the digital space to take that audience,” the MS NOW President shared, “because we need to be honest — that audience is not necessarily going to find us on traditional cable, but we should build something that brings them into our community.”
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