The Scoop
MS NOW will launch a membership program next month in an effort to grow its digital business and reach audiences amid the broader decline of cable television.
On Sep. 9, the left-leaning cable news network will roll out the program aimed at engaging its existing “super fans,” and offering ways to reach and monetize new audiences that are not everyday cable news viewers, MS NOW President Rebecca Kutler said in a memo to staff on Wednesday first reported by Semafor. The new membership, priced at $7.99 per month and $79.99 annually, will offer perks like members-only content verticals, opportunities for subscribers to interact with the network’s personalities, community features for members to engage with each other, and a 24/7 network feed.
Kutler said that the member launch was the first of a slate of direct-to-consumer features and offerings the network planned to introduce.
“Sept. 9 will mark the beginning of a new chapter, but not its completion,” Kutler said. “We are at day one and have many learnings ahead of us. This launch is just the first step and one we have taken deliberately.”
In this article:
Know More
The membership program, according to MS NOW, is the result of online survey responses and interviews with 18,000 network viewers. In March 2025, soon after NBCUniversal announced it was spinning off its non-Bravo cable assets, the network began discussing how it wanted to build its membership product.
The company said its research showed that the network’s fans felt the news media ecosystem was too fragmented, and wanted to get news in one place. The network’s target audiences also wanted tailored, curated news experiences so they did not have to sift through tidbits of information across different sources, and wanted online spaces to interact with people they agreed with. They also expressed excitement at the possibility of interacting with the platform’s journalists and personalities.
In Wednesday’s memo, Kutler said that the network currently did not see much overlap between its television viewership and the audiences consuming the content it hosts for free online, representing an opportunity to drive viewers to its digital products, and familiarize its online audience with more of the network’s content.
“The result is not a direct-to-consumer product created simply because the marketplace is moving in that direction,” Kutler wrote. “It is a Membership experience built around demonstrated audience needs, the particular strengths of the MS NOW brand, and VERSANT’s broader strategy to extend the reach of its brands, deepen audience relationships, and accelerate digital growth.”
Max’s view
Their clear ideological viewpoints, brands, and the willingness of most of their personalities to stick around have insulated networks like Fox News and MS NOW from the sharp decline in viewership eating away at much of the rest of cable television. The networks remain good businesses in the medium term; Fox News and MS NOW bring in billions of dollars in revenue each year. CNN has suffered significant viewership and revenue losses, yet its adjusted EBITDA in the coming years is expected to fluctuate between $500-600 million. Not bad for a news media business.
Still, the cable networks see the eventual trajectory. For years, linear television news networks competed for attention online with other digital content. Now, the networks realize they increasingly need to build their businesses there.
MS NOW’s announcement on Wednesday is part of a larger push by Versant and its CEO Mark Lazarus to grow the company’s consumer arms; financial news company CNBC is rolling out a premium consumer product, including presumably tools for investors.
The cable news networks have taken different approaches to building online revenue in recent years. Fox News invested in bonus content online via Fox Nation, a streaming service attempting to supplement the network’s 24/7 red meat with documentary and entertainment programming with a patriotic bent. After scuttling its costly standalone streaming product CNN+, the network last year introduced a paywall for much of its reporting.
While CNN pitched its subscription product as, essentially, a paywall for its journalism, MS NOW is leaning more into the parasocial relationship its fans feel with its journalists. In recent years, the company has pushed more into live events, with ticketed events in New York and an upcoming arena-sized event in Texas. When I described MS NOW’s offerings as “bonus content,” a network spokesperson pushed back on the description, saying instead that it was an “all-inclusive membership experience.”