FX to Split into Two Channels?

[king3pj]

According to IGN, FX is going to split into two channels. They want to make a new comedy channel and move shows like It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Archer, and The League to the new channel and leave the drama like Justified and Sons of Anarchy on the original channel. IGN compared it to TBS splitting off from TNT. They are saying the comedy channel will replace Fox Soccer. That's bad news for soccer fans but hopefully the existing FSC contracts carry over to this channel so we won't see new disputes. I personally don't see the need for this split. I like several of FX's original series, especially the comedies, but it doesn't feel like they have so much content that they need two channels.

http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/01/18/fx-comedy-shows-heading-to-new-sister-channel

 

[Skee7ix]

Well, but Fox Soccer will have almost nothing to show by then, because lost the English Premier League rights to NBC, so they will only have to few things to show, thought it will be the Champions League, but I read that will move to Fox Sports 1, a channel that will replace SPEED, and all of the motorsports at SPEED will move to Fuel.

 

[king3pj]

Well, but Fox Soccer will have almost nothing to show by then, because lost the English Premier League rights to NBC, so they will only have to few things to show, thought it will be the Champions League, but I read that will move to Fox Soccer 1, a channel that will replace SPEED, and all of the motorsports at SPEED will move to Fuel.

That may explain a lot of this. I don't follow soccer so I had no idea that FSC was loosing most of its content.

 

[dare2be]

Ah yes, spread the content from one channel over 2 channels...more room for infomercials! And now we have another channel that we can pay subscriber fees for. Yippee!

 

[osu1991]

The plan appears to be that Speed will become Fox Sports 1 to compete with espn and carry Nascar races, MLB, Big 12 and Pac 12 football, some UFC stuff and any remaining soccer. The rest of the racing shows and UFC stuff will move to Fuel which will become Fox Sports 2.

I can see the shuffling and rebranding of the sports channels. Its a better use of their assets, but I agree it will really water down what programming FX has, by splitting that channel.

 

[Mochuf]

Ah yes, spread the content from one channel over 2 channels...more room for infomercials! And now we have another channel that we can pay subscriber fees for. Yippee!

Exactly right! No way in hell would Fox actually close down a channel that doesn't have any content. Just water down another channel so they can keep those fees coming in!

 

[king3pj]

Maybe they had to replace FSC with something to fulfill their contracts with the cable and satellite providers. Didn't Disney do something similar with Soapnet on Dish to finish out their contract after the channel was canceled everywhere else?

 

[osu1991]

Ah yes, spread the content from one channel over 2 channels...more room for infomercials! And now we have another channel that we can pay subscriber fees for. Yippee!

I agree, but since they are just rebranding existing channels, a lot of people are already paying for them. Probably not as many as will be once Fox negotiates them into lower packages though.

 

[Skee7ix]

Now we have too many "thematic" channels, that didn't even show what they are supposed to.

 

[whitewolf8214]

Another waste of space for a wasted channel that should be no use for

 

[Mochuf]

Maybe they had to replace FSC with something to fulfill their contracts with the cable and satellite providers. Didn't Disney do something similar with Soapnet on Dish to finish out their contract after the channel was canceled everywhere else?

I agree, but since they are just rebranding existing channels, a lot of people are already paying for them. Probably not as many as will be once Fox negotiates them into lower packages though.

The trouble is not every pay-tv provider has Fox Soccer and now to get the same content that FX currently has, those systems need to pick it up. There actually are some smaller systems that have customers who are happy with lower prices because their system doesn't get every channel available. Especially the pro league sports channels and Fox Soccer. And not every channel that gets more mainstream content moves down a tier. Look at History and H2. H2 is still in the higher tiers and is a drain on History's programming. Who in the world needs 4 hour blocks of American Pickers or Pawn Stars when those blocks could be getting programming that's being split off onto H2?

 

[chiodo]

It is all about advertising revenue, with two separate channels they can show twice as many commercials, even if they show nothing but garbage tv shows.

Just to note on Mochuf post, I find H2 has better programming than the History Channel does, but I agree who needs 4 hour blocks of American Pickers or Pawn Stars, but I guess people must watch
them, maybe not all at once but there must be viewers at some point during that 4 hour block, so long as the station gets advertising revenue they don't care.
Besides it's easier and cheaper to keep a TV Channel alive than it is to let it go dark and then start a new one from scratch later on.

 

[osu1991]

The trouble is not every pay-tv provider has Fox Soccer and now to get the same content that FX currently has, those systems need to pick it up. There actually are some smaller systems that have customers who are happy with lower prices because their system doesn't get every channel available. Especially the pro league sports channels and Fox Soccer. And not every channel that gets more mainstream content moves down a tier. Look at History and H2. H2 is still in the higher tiers and is a drain on History's programming. Who in the world needs 4 hour blocks of American Pickers or Pawn Stars when those blocks could be getting programming that's being split off onto H2?

Hey I've been preaching that for a couple of years now. It drives me nuts to look at the guide and see 250 channels showing 4-6 hr blocks of the same thing and not a single thing that interests me.

 

[Juan]

According to IGN, FX is going to split into two channels. They want to make a new comedy channel and move shows like It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Archer, and The League to the new channel and leave the drama like Justified and Sons of Anarchy on the original channel. IGN compared it to TBS splitting off from TNT. They are saying the comedy channel will replace Fox Soccer. That's bad news for soccer fans but hopefully the existing FSC contracts carry over to this channel so we won't see new disputes. I personally don't see the need for this split. I like several of FX's original series, especially the comedies, but it doesn't feel like they have so much content that they need two channels.

http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/01/18/fx-comedy-shows-heading-to-new-sister-channel

I don't recall TBS splitting from TNT..TBS replaced WTBS the superstation

 

[king3pj]

I don't recall TBS splitting from TNT..TBS replaced WTBS the superstation

I don't know anything about that. You may be right. I just repeated what I read in the article.

 

[The Fat Man]

Actually WTBS split from the cable channel and became WPCH (Peach Tree). The only thing they retained was local programing and Braves Baseball. The rest stayed with TBS. At that time, Time Warner decided to theme TBS for comedy and TNT for drama.

 

[Juan]

Actually WTBS split from the cable channel and became WPCH (Peach Tree). The only thing they retained was local programing and Braves Baseball. The rest stayed with TBS. At that time, Time Warner decided to theme TBS for comedy and TNT for drama.

no WTBS was the first "Superstation"..TBS evolved from it

 

[dfergie]

no WTBS was the first "Superstation"..TBS evolved from it

Yes, I had it on C-Band ...

 

[The Fat Man]

Yes, but WTBS dropped the branding, it stayed alive through the cable channel. I see it as the Superstation went cable only. Such as when an FM station goes internet only. I got TBS in the early 80s in Massachusetts on Continental Cablevision.

 

[dwarren2]

I think TNT was originally The Nashville Network with very country theme.