Fox Network Builds Its “Modern Studio” With Four-Pronged Bet on New IP Incubators

In a series of four linked moves in October and November 2025, Fox Entertainment established a new, multi-format intellectual property (IP) pipeline. The strategy combines an acquisition, two equity stakes, and a first-look deal. 

The moves include: a two-way, first-look deal with publisher HarperCollins’ Avon A imprint (October 8); an equity stake in Holywater, an AI-driven vertical video company (October 9); an equity stake in B.J. Novak’s food-experience brand Chain (October 23); and the acquisition of scripted-podcast studio Meet Cute (November 4). This ecosystem is designed to generate and test IP from books, mobile-first video, audio, and experiential events, scaling successful properties for Fox’s networks.

Fox Entertainment is the central acquirer, investor, and studio. The partners function as IP incubators and producers. The deals involved:

• HarperCollins: Hannah Pillemer worked with Avon A VP & Editorial Director Tessa Woodward and HarperCollins Productions heads Caroline Fraser and Jennifer Contrucci.
• Holywater: The equity stake was led by Rob Wade, involving Co-CEOs Bogdan Nesvit and Anatolii Kasianov.
• Chain: The investment involves its founder, B.J. Novak 
• Meet Cute: The acquisition was overseen by Hannah Pillemer, with founder Naomi Shah joining Fox as SVP, Operations & Strategy.

This four-part strategy provides Fox with distinct, low-cost IP funnels. The reciprocal book-to-screen flow with HarperCollins is relatively rare, allowing Fox to both adapt Avon A titles and, in reverse, create new books from its own IP. This contrasts with more common one-way publisher pacts, like Sony’s 2024 first-look deal to adapt content from The Guardian. The Holywater stake provides a mobile-first production lane with volume economics (200+ titles), while the Meet Cute acquisition provides an audio lab (2.5M listeners) to test stories before screen adaptation. The Chain investment creates a brand activation engine, linking IP to Studio Ramsay Global.

The uniqueness is the combination of all four deals. This signals a broader content-sourcing pivot into audio and vertical drama, as seen in recent audio consolidation (e.g., PodX acquiring Lemonada Media) and new micro-drama launches (e.g., GammaTime). Fox has assembled a network of formats (audio, short video, books, experiences) to feed a central studio. Expect peers to answer with their own publisher pacts (likely one-way), podcast IP buys, and selective micro-drama tests.

This combination creates a new, data-driven front-end for the Fox content supply chain, one that sits before the traditional pilot system. The primary impact is a strategic shift in development risk. Fox can now test hundreds of concepts and new creators—via audio, AI shorts, or books—for a fraction of the cost of a single TV pilot. The data from these incubators (listener completion rates, vertical video engagement, book sales) provides immediate validation. This determines which IP graduates to a higher-budget development track for any of Fox’s networks, effectively shifting development from high-cost, high-risk guesses to low-cost, data-informed bets.

These deals are not four separate bets; they are the blueprint for a single, self-contained IP ecosystem. Fox is building its own system for content, designed to operate independently of the high-cost, talent-agency-driven prestige economy. The prediction is a two-speed development process: a high-volume, data-driven pipeline to feed the voracious content needs of its AVOD platform, Tubi, and a separate, high-filter track that up-streams only the most proven, breakout hits from this system for the broadcast network. This model is built for volume and efficiency, not prestige.