Fox wants people who don't pay for cable but do like shows like "Fox & Friends" to pay for its new Fox One streaming service.
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Fox and ESPN, the two biggest holdouts in the streaming wars, will finally launch their own services in August.
But compared to previous streaming launches, these are pretty low-key affairs.
There's a reason for that: Fox and Disney want the streamers to be successful — but not too successful.
Fox stayed out of the streaming wars for years. Now it's jumping in with Fox One, its $20-a-month service that launches August 21.
But if you're going to wait until years after everyone else to start streaming, you probably have pretty big ambitions. Right, Lachlan Murdoch?
Nope!
"Our aspirations for Fox One subscribers are modest," the Fox CEO told investors on Tuesday, adding that the company will be making a "measured investment" in the service.
Disney holds its quarterly earnings call Wednesday morning, so we'll have to wait until then to officially compare hype levels. But my educated hunch is that CEO Bob Iger will also go out of his way not to over-promise the prospects for that service: When ESPN unveiled its years-in-the-making launch plans in May, it was at a very low-key event, devoid of almost all glitz.
The difference between these launches and the ones we saw at the beginning of the streaming wars, six or seven years ago, is quite striking. Back then, big media companies rolled out new services with a galaxy of high-wattage stars, and tripped all over themselves to explain how much they were spending to catch up with Netflix. New subscribers would pour in by the tens of millions a year, they promised. And yes, they'd lose a bunch of money along the way.
But if you've been paying attention to the streaming business over this time, the change is quite understandable.
Back in the early days of streaming, media companies thought Wall Street would reward them if they copied Netflix's "grow like crazy, figure out profits later" strategy. Instead, investors decided they didn't want growth at all costs, and pushed streamers to run their businesses like … businesses.
Which is partly why Murdoch reminded investors Tuesday that Fox One will be very cheap to launch, since there's nothing on the service that isn't already on existing Fox-owned channels.
But the other part of the messaging reflects the other reality at Disney and Fox: They would both like people to buy streaming services from them — but only if it doesn't cut into their old business of selling cable TV subscriptions.
That's why both ESPN and Fox officials take great pains to explain that they don't think the services they're selling will convince a cable TV subscriber to cut the cord. Instead, they argue, this is for people who don't already have pay TV.
This isn't subtext. It's right out in public.
"We do not want to lose a traditional cable subscriber to FOX One, and we're doing everything we can to make sure, as much as humanly possible, that that's the way we market, and that's the way we plan the business," Murdoch told investors three months ago.
You can also see the needle-threading in the pricing for these services: In the past, new streamers launched at $10 a month or less, hoping to grab lots of market share. Now, Fox and Disney are coming in at double and triple that, at least in part so that they don't undercut the pricing of much bigger bundles sold through traditional cable.
So who might actually buy this stuff? We'll see. ESPN's service might appeal to college football fans, since the service has deals to show lots of games from marquee teams and leagues. NFL fans may be a little more frustrated, since ESPN will only have a slice of the season's games.
And as for Fox One: In theory, you might have people signing up to get Fox's weekly lineup of NFL games. But it seems most likely that the service is meant primarily to appeal to "people who like Fox News but either don't get cable or want to ditch cable and just get Fox News."
If it's the former group, Murdoch will be happy. But if it's from the second …
Former Nike CEO John Donahoe has been hired as athletic director at Stanford.
Donahoe will become the school’s eighth athletic director and replace Bernard Muir, who stepped down this year. He will officially begin in the role Sept. 8.
“Stanford occupies a unique place in the national athletics landscape,” school president Jon Levin said in a statement. “We needed a distinctive leader — someone with the vision, judgment, and strategic acumen for a new era of college athletics, and with a deep appreciation for Stanford’s model of scholar-athlete excellence. John embodies these characteristics.”
ESPN first reported the move.
Donahoe graduated from Stanford Business School and was CEO at Nike from 2020-24. Donahoe also served as the CEO of ServiceNow, a global software company, and as CEO of eBay. He served as chair of the board at PayPal from 2015-25 and he worked for Bain & Company for nearly 20 years, including as the firm’s worldwide CEO.
“Stanford has enormous strengths and enormous potential in a changing environment, including being the model for achieving both academic and athletic excellence at the highest levels,” he said. “I can’t wait to work in partnership with the Stanford team to build momentum for Stanford Athletics and ensure the best possible experiences for our student-athletes.”
Donahoe takes over one of the country’s most successful athletic programs with Stanford having won at least one NCAA title in 49 straight years starting in 1976-77 and a record 137 NCAA team titles overall.
But the Cardinal struggled in the high-profile sports of football and men’s basketball under Muir’s tenure, leading to the decision to hire former Stanford and NFL star Andrew Luck to oversee the football program as its general manager.
The Cardinal are looking to rebound in football after going to three Rose Bowls under former coach David Shaw in Muir’s first four years as AD.
Shaw resigned in 2022 following a second straight 3-9 season and Muir’s new hire, Troy Taylor, posted back-to-back 3-9 seasons before being fired in March following a report that he had been investigated twice for allegedly mistreating staffers.
Luck hired former NFL coach Frank Reich as interim coach.
The men’s basketball program hasn’t made the NCAA Tournament since Muir’s second season in 2013-14 under former coach Johnny Dawkins.
Dawkins was fired in 2016 and replaced by Jerod Haase, who failed to make the tournament once in eight years.
Muir hired Kyle Smith last March to take over and the Cardinal went 21-14 for their most wins in 10 years.
Muir also hired Kate Paye as women’s basketball coach last year after Hall of Famer Tara VanDerveer retired. The Cardinal went 16-15 this past season and in missed the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1987.
Muir also oversaw the Cardinal’s transition to the ACC this past year after the school’s long-term home, the Pac-12, broke apart.
Media personality Shannon Sharpe is leaving ESPN but will still host his podcasts.
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Shannon Sharpe isn't returning to ESPN.
The NFL Hall of Famer settled a lawsuit accusing him of rape in mid-July.
Sharpe also hosts the "Club Shay Shay" and "Nightcap" podcasts, which are not part of ESPN.
ESPN is cutting ties with Shannon Sharpe after he settled a lawsuit earlier this month that accused him of rape, a person familiar with the matter confirmed to Business Insider.
The media personality and NFL Hall of Famer stepped away from ESPN in late April, when a lawsuit was filed against him by a woman referred to anonymously as "Jane Doe." The lawsuit sought $50 million in damages and alleged that Sharpe raped Doe, among other claims. Doe said in the suit that their relationship began as "rocky but consensual."
Representatives for Sharpe didn't immediately respond to requests for comment Wednesday.
Sharpe denied the lawsuit's allegations, calling them "false and disruptive" in an April 24 statement. He said the "relationship in question was 100% consensual" and agreed to temporarily step back from ESPN. Sharpe had said he planned to return to ESPN for the NFL preseason, which begins Thursday night. The Athletic first reported that he wouldn't return to ESPN.
Doe's lawyer announced on July 18 that the case had been settled. Terms of the settlement were not disclosed.
Sharpe joined ESPN in September 2023 and became a regular on ESPN's "First Take," headlined by Stephen A. Smith. Before that, Sharpe spent seven years at Fox Sports, where he cohosted the "Undisputed" sports debate show with Skip Bayless, Smith's former costar.
Sharpe isn't leaving media entirely.
He still hosts the "Club Shay Shay" and "Nightcap" podcasts, each of which posted new episodes just hours before the news of his ESPN departure broke. Those podcasts are on The Volume network, founded by Fox Sports personality Colin Cowherd.
The numbers $6.4 billion — Kraft Heinz’s Q2 2025 net sales, down 1.9% year-over-year. 1.5% to 3.5% — Expected organic net sales decrease for the rest of the year. 20% — […]
Chris Martin of Coldplay performs at a concert where you should feel free to canoodle in peace.
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You've probably seen the Coldplay "kiss cam" moment that has ricocheted around the internet.
A tech CEO and his head of HR appear to embrace, then look mortified after seeing themselves on cam.
I wish I didn't know anything about any of this — I wish none of us did.
I don't want to know what you did at a Coldplay concert. I don't want to know who you were there with, what the track list was. I don't even want to know you went!
And if it turns out that you were caught on camera in a passionate embrace with a coworker? I mean, sure, I'm curious. I love gossip! But I'm not sure I should know about that. And that goes double if I don't know you in real life.
On Thursday, as I'm sure you know by now, a "kiss cam" video went viral from a Coldplay concert outside Boston on Wednesday night. In the clip, two audience members stand against a railing, the man with his arms around the woman. They look to be in their late 40s or early 50s, fit and attractive, enjoying the musical stylings of arguably Britain's greatest rock act of the 21st century.
As soon as they realize they're on the Jumbotron, the woman turns to hide her face, and the man ducks. You overhear front-man Chris Martin say into the microphone, "Either they're having an affair, or they're just very shy."
Yikes!
The clip appeared to show Astronomer CEO Andy Byron embracing the company's head of HR, Kristin Cabot. Neither has commented on the clip.
I'm not sure how people online figured out who these people were. Was it by using a controversial facial-recognition tool like PimEyes? Or was it from someone who knows them in real life who identified them?
The thing is, I don't know these people. (Neither, probably, do you.) I don't know their lives. I have no idea what was really going on. Astronomer execs, board members, and founders haven't returned BI's requests for comment, as my colleagues Madeline Berg and Tim Paradis report.
I can say that the online attention they've received is certainly distressing to them — on top of a situation that may also already be very distressing in other ways.
The issue might have some legs from an HR standpoint: If a company CEO is embracing his head of personnel at a concert, could that raise some issues? Sure! That's for the company and its execs to figure out. But otherwise, who cares? I don't.
I just spent almost every day of the last six weeks watching some of the most depraved people on Earth frolic around in swimwear and occasionally hump under thick duvets on "Love Island." I'm not going to suddenly go morality police to say that two Coldplay-loving consenting adults is the biggest scandal I can imagine.
And, to me, there's a potentially unsettling element of potential surveillance. As 404 Media wrote:
The same technologies used to dox and research this CEO are routinely deployed against the partners of random people who have had messy breakups, attractive security guards, people who look "suspicious" and are caught on Ring cameras by people on Nextdoor, people who dance funny in public, and so on. There has been endless debate about the ethics of doxing cops and ICE agents and Nazis, and there are many times where it makes sense to research people doing harm on behalf of the state or who are doing violent, scary things in to innocent people.
It is another to deploy these technologies against random people you saw on an airplane or who had a messy breakup with an influencer.
Again, we're not sure what happened here or how these people were apparently identified. But I don't think it's any of our business — barring something illegal — what happens at a concert. Could it violate a company's rules? Yes, but then the company can deal with it.
By the way: Why the heck does Coldplay have a kiss cam, anyway?
GM was the first major US automaker to make the promise to go all-electric by 2035, just four years ago. Those promises have since turned into rough estimates under the second Donald Trump presidency, with the company softening language about its electrification goals. But GM is riding high on EV sales, and as CEO Mary Barra puts it, EVs are still the future - just on a delayed (and very flexible) timeline.
"We still believe in an all-electric future," Barra told The Verge in an exclusive interview at the Le Mans race in France. "The regulations were getting in front of where the consumer demand was, largely because of charging infrastruct …
On Thursday, a digital rights group, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, published an expansive investigation into AI-generated police reports that the group alleged are, by design, nearly impossible to audit and could make it easier for cops to lie under oath.
Axon's Draft One debuted last summer at a police department in Colorado, instantly raising questions about the feared negative impacts of AI-written police reports on the criminal justice system. The tool relies on a ChatGPT variant to generate police reports based on body camera audio, which cops are then supposed to edit to correct any mistakes, assess the AI outputs for biases, or add key context.
But the EFF found that the tech "seems designed to stymie any attempts at auditing, transparency, and accountability." Cops don't have to disclose when AI is used in every department, and Draft One does not save drafts or retain a record showing which parts of reports are AI-generated. Departments also don't retain different versions of drafts, making it difficult to assess how one version of an AI report might compare to another to help the public determine if the technology is "junk," the EFF said. That raises the question, the EFF suggested, "Why wouldn't an agency want to maintain a record that can establish the technology’s accuracy?"
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