Fox News goes broadband

Fox News has become the latest major media outlet to offer streaming video clips of its TV programs for free on the Web in hopes of attracting more broadband users.

The cable news station, owned by News Corp., on Tuesday said its FoxNews.com Web site now lets visitors stream clips from its breaking news and popular talk shows such as "The O'Reilly Factor."

Fox News joins other news outlets that offer free, advertising-supported streaming video to its Web visitors. After the dot-com collapse, some media companies such as CNN and ABCNews.com began charging for subscriptions as a way to finance video clips.

Recently, however, other companies have been taking a stab at keeping video free. Last week, Microsoft released a free streaming video site called MSN TV that features segments from NBC News and news shows such as "Dateline." CBS News also has taken the free route by supporting its video with advertising.

FoxNews.com has chosen the free model as a starting point, but by no means is the decision set in stone, the company said.

"We may go down that road in the near future, but at this point, that's not what we're going to be doing," said Bert Solivan, general manager at FoxNews.com.

FoxNews.com will offer the feeds in Windows Media and RealNetworks formats. It will provide streams in 56kbps (kilobits per second) for dial-up users and 300kbps for broadband users.