Got Jesus?
If so, the Fox Corporation wants you.
The company is stepping up its investment in Theo-centric content by stepping back into the faith-based market.
Fox will resurrect a digital version of its 2006 analogue FOX Faith brand, which now appears to have been providentially dissolved in 2010.
Disney acquired 20th Century Fox’s film library in a 2019 buyout.
Because of that targeted acquisition, an increasingly Woke Disney now owns major Christian films from the 00s, like “One Night With the King” and “The Ultimate Gift.”
None of which are currently available to stream through Disney+.
Since the FOX Faith brand was dissolved before the buyout, FOX still has the right to repackage it.
New FOX Faith vertical content will include Christocentric film projects like Martin Scorsese’s series on Christian Saints.
The resurrected initiative, Variety magazine reported, was part of Fox’s broader attempts to stay on top of the so-called “streaming wars.”
“Executives are hoping” to provide quality faith-based content to a rapidly re-emerging counter-cultural Christian consumer fed up with being force-fed lies.
Jason Klarman, one of FOX’s marketing bosses, told Variety that he “thinks there is an insatiable appetite among a very passionate audience, and that his audience was being underserved.”
Speculating on who might have been a major influence in FOX deciding to reignite the brand, Variety suggested that Fox & Friends, Ainsley Earhardt, may have lit the spark.
The twice-divorced hostess, who is now engaged to Sean Hannity, has been at the forefront of platforming the Christian faith on Fox for at least 5 years.
In 2019, Fox reportedly approached Earhardt, an all-in Christian, about filming her private women’s bible study.
Since then, the 50-year-old single mum has hosted “Ainsley’s Bible Study” on the FOX Nation news hub.
FOX Faith’s origins go back to producer Simon Swart.
According to a 2007 article published by media veteran and author Phil Cooke, Swart played a key role in steering FOX towards engaging more on a faith-based level.
Swart told Cooke that the first rendition of FOX Faith was the “culmination of years working towards reaching the faith-based world with much sought-after quality products.”
The standards were high.
Cooke said, “Swart wasn’t interested in taking just any faith-based project.”
“The film had to be a good story, have solid production values, and regardless of its faith content, it had to be a good movie.”
Put simply, no kitsch.
“Christian producers might be sincere,” he said in 2007, “but some can’t tell a good story, have no idea of production values, and generally mean well, but produce really terrible stuff.”
Swart described the creation of FOX Faith 2006 as “a remarkable window for faith-based producers.”
Still relevant today, his advice to Christians then “was to make the most of it.”
Notably, despite recent media hype elevating the creation of FOX Faith 2.0 as a new thing, the hub has been active since late last year.
In a press release dated 30 September 2024, FOX News media said they were using “a new season of God. Family. Football. to kick start the new FOX Faith platform.”
The pun was part of the official relaunch of the series after it bought the rights to the former Amazon docuseries.
