MS NOW Membership Launches September 9 at $7.99 a Month, or $39.99 for the First Year

MS NOW is launching its first paid direct-to-consumer product on 9 September, and the MS NOW Membership will cost $7.99 a month or $79.99 a year. Sign up before 30 September and the first year runs $39.99 plus tax, which works out to roughly $3.33 a month for the introductory stretch.

The pitch is access rather than a back catalogue. Members get 24/7 live streams and television programming, original content from a new roster of contributors, community features, and direct interaction with the network's journalists. The company describes it as an addition to the existing MS NOW television and digital products, not a replacement for either.

What does the MS NOW Membership actually get you?

Five things, based on what the network has put on the record:

• Round-the-clock access to live streams and TV programming
• Original shows and segments made for members
• A new slate of contributors and outside experts
• Community features built around interacting with the newsroom
• New coverage verticals digging into how news and politics land in everyday life

What has not been detailed yet: which apps and devices carry it at launch, whether the live feed is the full linear channel or a members-only stream, and how the membership sits alongside a pay-TV subscription. Those are the questions worth watching between now and 9 September.

How does the MS NOW Membership price compare?

This is the last of the three big American cable-news brands to sell a standalone subscription. CNN All Access runs $6.99 a month. Fox Nation is $8.99. At $7.99, MS NOW lands squarely between them — close enough that price alone is unlikely to decide anything, which is presumably why the intro year is set so far below the annual rate.

For context on where the rest of the market sits, the general-entertainment services have been moving the other way. Peacock lifted every tier this month, as covered in our breakdown of the Peacock price increase, and bundle deals like the YouTube Premium and Peacock pairing have become the main way to keep a monthly bill flat.

Why is a news network selling a membership at all?

Because the audience is already off cable. The network points to more than 3.2 billion views across YouTube and TikTok so far this year and over 80 million podcast downloads, alongside a linear audience that watches around nine hours a week — the second-highest figure among cable networks. Those are two different businesses, and only one of them currently bills anybody directly.

Rebecca Kutler, president of MS NOW, called the membership "the first step in a long-term strategy to deepen our relationship with audiences in ways that build on what they already value about MS Now." Read that as: more tiers, or more products, later.

Should you take the $39.99 introductory year?

If you were going to subscribe anyway, yes — $39.99 is exactly half the $79.99 annual rate, and the window closes on 30 September. If you are undecided, the monthly plan at $7.99 is the cheaper way to test it, since a single month costs less than a fifth of what the discounted year does.

One practical note for anyone stacking services: news subscriptions like this one tend to sit outside the usual bundle discounts, so it is a straight addition to the monthly total rather than something you can fold into an existing plan. If your streaming setup runs through a TV box, it is worth checking device support before launch day — the same catch that came up with Alexa+ arriving free on Fire TV and with the next Apple TV 4K hardware.

When can you sign up?

The membership goes live on 9 September 2026. The $39.99 first-year offer runs through 30 September, so there is a three-week overlap in which the discount is available after launch. Standard pricing of $7.99 monthly and $79.99 annually applies from 1 October onward.