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ox Sports has announced it will close all of its apps by the end of November, in an effort to simplify its digital subscriptions services and shift its focus to its website subscription service.

This means apps including Fox Footy, Fox League, Fox Sports multi-sport app and Fox Cricket will all be closing by the end of November, with Fox Sport executive editor, Luke McIlveen, saying the move is to reflect the changing viewing habits of Foxtel customers.

“With more than 80% of total traffic now using FoxSports.com.au, this is a natural time to retire these free apps with declining use, without disappointing sports fans,” McIlveen said.

“Fans are overwhelmingly telling us they prefer to access their sports news and match stats and results through their browser.

“With this shift, we need to focus our journalism, video offering and marketing efforts on FoxSports.com.au and continue delivering great content for our users and continued audience growth for our commercial and advertising partners,” he said.

The success of Foxtel’s sports streaming service, Kayo, has been a large influence in the decision, which will also see Fox Sports remove its digital subscriptions model, with digital subscriber content that was previously behind a paywall to become inaccessible from November 23.

McIlveen said pro-rata refunds will be given to subscribers when the service is discontinued, with the move guaranteed to not affect separate subscriptions to Kayo or Foxtel.

“Digital subscriptions were a great idea when we launched the service in 2015, but with Kayo’s success, the declining utility of the video content behind the digital site’s paywall and just a few thousand subscribers, it’s time for a change,” McIlveen said.

The Fox Footy app will be removed on November 2, while Fox League, Fox Cricket and Fox Sports multi-sport, will all be removed on November 27.