Is Bill O’Reilly Launching ‘The O’Reilly Factor’ Network?
Bill O’Reilly is expanding the content on the Bill O’Reilly website with the apparent possibility of launching his own network and/or perhaps joining forces with an existing one.
A daily O’Reilly Factor lookalike video streaming newscast is in the works.
As anchor of The O’Reilly Factor, O’Reilly presided over the top-rated show on the cable news network for 15 years prior to his exit from the Fox News Channel on April 19. Up until recently, the powerhouse Fox News prime-time lineup buried MSNBC and CNN, but has lost ground since the post-O’Reilly shakeup.
The news anchor got into hot water after the New York Times reported that he or his employer paid out $13 million to confidentially settle sexual harassment claims by five women, and advertisers started bailing on The O’Reilly Factor in droves. The Murdoch family, particular the Murdoch sons who are said to be more politically liberal than their dad Rupert, decided to part ways with their longtime star while he was on vacation in Rome.
Since his FNC departure, O’Reilly, 67, launched the “no-spin” podcast and did several phone-in segments on Glenn Beck’s TheBlaze show.
It remains to be seen if a No-Spin or O’Reilly Factor network emerges.
O’Reilly announced during the first leg of “The Spin Stops Here” at the NYCB Theater on Long Island last Saturday that he is staffing up to launch his own, subscription-based half-hour online newscast as a beta test from a studio that will resemble The O’Reilly Factor set, Newsday reported.
“It’s basically an experiment to see how many people are going to want this service. That’s coming and will be here before September in a robust form. But I suspect there will be another network maybe merging with us. There will be a network that rises up because the numbers for Fox are going down.”
The One America News Network, Newsmax, and TheBlaze are or were apparently interested in bringing O’Reilly aboard in a full-time role. The combined Sinclair-Tribune Media network could also be a player.
“One digital media executive speculated that, in lieu of joining one company outright, O’Reilly might do a production deal with a network like Newsmax and then a distribution deal with a company like Sinclair, which will have an even larger footprint after acquiring Tribune Media’s portfolio of local television stations,” the Hollywood Reporter detailed.
Related story:
The Bill O’Reilly Comeback Could Start With These TV Networks
OANN revealed today, however, that it had pulled a lucrative offer for O’Reilly’s services off the table after the former FNC host’s people supposedly didn’t follow up, Mediaite reported.
We are pulling offer to @billoreilly, it could have paid him more than he made at Fox. We wish him luck. #OANN
— Robert Herring (@RobHerring) June 20, 2017
On his website, Bill O’Reilly explained that he is going to take things slow as far as the build-out of his website.
“I am taking some time to decide as America is changing quickly and I don’t want to miscalculate. So we will continue to expand analysis on BillOReilly.com and listen to offers this summer. This website will soon undergo a major transformation.”
On several occasions, he has alluded to the possibility of taking legal action against the left-wing activist groups that he says orchestrated his departure from Fox News. He has also promised to go public with the events that led to his exit from FNC. “Opinion journalism is under siege and you must have a strong stomach to compete in this arena. There is big money behind attacks on sponsors and phony, paid for smears on pundits and politicians. It is incredibly corrupt and nasty beyond belief,” O’Reilly’s website message added.
Although there has been a lot of buzz that O’Reilly and ex-colleague Sean Hannity never got along, Bill has been quite vocal in praising Hannity for fighting back against similar forces that sought to take his fellow Long Island resident off the air.
Would you pay money to watch a Bill O’Reilly newscast on streaming video? Do you think a conservative or right-leaning network headlined by Bill O’Reilly could compete effectively with Fox News?
[Featured Image by Jim Cooper/AP Images]
