Why are more media companies branching out into wine?

The Fox Corporation intends to make a splash in the wine business with the launch of its Fox News Wine Shop, an online venture selling all-American wines from independent producers. And it’s not the only media company eyeing up wine as a side hustle…

Fox News, the news division of one of the globe’s biggest media companies, announced on Tuesday 26 August that it is joining the world of wine. The brand revealed it has partnered with Direct Wines Inc. to launch online wine marketplace Fox News Wine Shop.

According to Fox News, consumers can browse wines “by country, region, grape variety, season, occasion and more”, and bottles are produced by “independent and family-run wineries across the United States”.

There will also be the opportunity to join the Fox News American Wine Club, a subscription service that delivers nine bottles every eight weeks.

Furthermore, a promotional activity called the ‘USA 250 collection’ has already been teased for next year. Described as “an exclusive line-up of wines crafted to celebrate America’s 250th birthday in 2026”, the series will kick off with California sparkling wine Liberty Sparkling, with more labels expected to be announced over the coming year.

High wine purchasing index

Jason Klarman, chief digital and marketing officer at Fox News Media, told Forbes that Fox’s audience “indexes very high for purchasing and consuming wine” so “it made sense to give them a curated wine experience that fits with the Fox News brand.”

Fox is generally considered to be a conservative media network with close ties to the Republican party and President Trump. One of the philanthropic causes Fox supports is the wellbeing of military veterans, and The Fox News Wine Shop plans to donate a portion of its sales to nonprofit organisation U.S.VETS, which works to fight homelessness among veterans.

For each Fox News American Wine Club (the subscription) case sold a donation will be made to U.S. VETS.

Huge platform

The potential reach of The Fox News Wine Shop is huge.

Fox News is just one division belonging to the gigantic media company Fox Corporation, which produces and distributes content across brands, including: Fox News Media, F0x Sports, Fox Entertainment, Fox Television Stations and Tubi Media Group. It also owns and operates 29 local television stations throughout the US, including 18 broadcasting under the Fox brand.

The media empire’s viewing figures are on the ascent. According to a letter penned by Fox Corporation CEO Lachlan Murdoch in the company’s annual shareholders report, Fox News was “the most-watched network in cable news in fiscal 2024, with 52% more minutes of viewing than its closest competitor.”

During fiscal year 2024 (ended 30 June 2025), Fox, a publicly traded company since 2019, generated nearly US$14 billion of revenue and $2.88 billion of adjusted EBITDA.

Interestingly, Klarman said that Fox News, specifically, is looking to expand its lifestyle side of the business in the coming year, with the creation of its wine club part of that strategy.

Growing trend

Media-based wine clubs are not exactly new. British broadsheet newspaper The Sunday Times has run its popular wine club since 1973, bringing wines directly from vineyards into consumers homes. It is said that the idea for the wine club came about following an exposé in The Sunday Times on the issue of fake wines. Having direct relationships with the growers and producers on the ground meant that the newspaper’s wine club was unlikely to fall foul of counterfeiters, and consumers were getting wines they could trust. Today The Sunday Times Wine Club is still going strong, delivering wine to more than 110,000 UK subscribers.

However, some unexpected players are starting to throw their hat in the ring.

In April, much-loved British institution The Radio Times launched its own premium wine club for its 23 million readers. Teaming up with The Wine Flyer, which has historically run loyalty schemes for frequent fliers of various airlines, The Radio Times Wine offers its subscribers the chance to earn Avios rewards to use on flights with every wine purchase.

One of the biggest draws of The Radio Times Wine, in cash-strapped times, is the lack of up-front commitment required. Readers can either choose to subscribe to the wine service, receiving a case every three months, or they can buy a one-off case, no strings attached.

Among the producers already signed up to work with The Radio Times Wine are: Finca Los Trenzones in the Spanish region of La Mancha, Miopasso in Sicily, Muldova’s Jumi-Juma and the organic Château Paradis located in Coteaux d’Aix en Provence.

Recipe for success

As we know, wine consumption is declining. Media consumption, however, is rising exponentially. So how can wine businesses reach the most people? Through the media they digest every day.

Fundamental to this discussion is who is drinking wine. Earlier this year, a survey of 1,215 Americans by Gallup revealed that only 59% of 21-35 year olds drink alcohol, compared with 72% in 2001. Much is made of the fact that the younger generation are cutting back on booze or eschewing it altogether in the name of wellbeing, but what of the older demographics? The ones that aren’t TikTok fluent and who still turn to traditional television and radio channels for their news? Well they are still buying wine. And they’re buying it online.

As the drinks business reported last year, boomers and Gen X are responsible for 60% of online wine orders in major markets. Boomers are those born between 1946 to 1964, and so currently aged 61- 79 years old, while Gen X were born between 1965 and 1980, and currently aged 45 to 60 years old.

These findings chime with Fox Corporation’s audience growth trend, with CEO Lachlan Murdoch noting in his annual shareholders report that total viewers “were up 103% in the ‘adults aged 25-54’ demographic over the last year.”

So there is an older demographic that is buying wine online and watching more TV. Now, this might sound overly simplistic, but it might also be a recipe for success.

What comes next?

Speaking at the 2024 annual shareholders meeting, Murdoch suggested that artificial intelligence (AI) was set to play a bigger role in the company’s future.

“The development and proliferation of artificial intelligence continues to raise new opportunities for our company and our industry,” he said. “Fox has historically been an early adopter of new technologies, and as ‘AI optimists’, we believe that this technology can be thoughtfully deployed to enrich our product capabilities as well as the user experience across our platforms.”

Could The Fox News Wine Shop make AI an integral feature of its offer? If so, American consumers can expect to experience more highly personalised offerings via tools such as AI shopping assistants who answer questions in real time to guide shoppers to best-fit items. These could be tailored towards age demographic, but also broken down further into taste, price and regional preferences. For further insight into how retailers are using AI in everything from interactive shelf displays to smart barcodes, check out our feature on the future of retail here.

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