The end of September brought in the expiration of another carriage deal with no agreement in place to renew it. At midnight on Sept. 30, the Disney-owned television stations that carry ABC programming as well as cable networks ESPN, FX Networks, Nat Geo, Freeform and Disney Channel, are no longer available on Dish and Sling TV. The news comes just a couple of days after the Game Show Network was restored on Dish and Sling TV after it too went dark over a carriage dispute. The disruption also comes as ABC is launching the new seasons of its series at the start of the broadcast season,
Disney’s FX Networks is hiring an ombudsman with the title senior vice president of diversity and culture, who will report to CEO John Landgraf.
In a competitive situation, FX Networks has landed off-network rights to hit Fox animated series Family Guy, starting with its 16th (2017-18) season. It has also made an off-network deal for Bob’s Burgers, starting with the current ninth season. (The older seasons of both Family Guy and Bob’s Burgers remain on Turner’s Adult Swim/TBS for the time being.)
For those existing Xfinity TV customers who pay $5.99 for a monthly upgrade, they can get FX+, a commercial-free option of FX Networks: FX and FXX. It will be available Sept. 5.
FX Networks is expanding the responsibilities of programming executives Gina Balian and Jonathan Frank. Balian will take on oversight of all series development for FX Networks and FX Productions.
Exclusives
Five months after he coined the term “peak TV” to describe the overwhelming amount of video content available to audiences, FX Networks CEO John Landgraf said we’re not yet at the peak, but will be soon. Landgraf also renewed his calls for Netflix to release data so it can be on a level playing field with the other TV networks.
The migration of TV to platforms like the Internet represents a “massive transition in technology, user interfaces and the nature” of the television industry, says FX CEO John Landgraf. “As long as we and others are able to innovate and invest, it’s great for the consumer” since competition will result in “the best possible work.”
A cable network like FX and a streaming service like Netflix might not appear to be direct competitors, but that’s going to change in December. That’s when FX Networks, a 21st Century Fox-owned portfolio of channels including FXM and FXX, will launch FXNow, an app with the kind of library aimed at squarely providing multichannel subscribers with the kind of movie selection they might otherwise look to Netflix to provide.
News Corp. has promoted John Landgraf to chief executive of its FX Networks and FX Productions unit. The move comes before the launch of FXX, a sister cable channel to FX that will make its debut in September. FX also has a movie channel called FXM and a video-on-demand platform called FXNOW. Landgraf, who previously had been president-GM of FX Networks, will now have a broader role in both running the networks and the production arm as well as its business operations.
