When Disney acquired Fox, consumers were curious and a little worried to see how Fox's television would change under the Mouse House's watchful eye. Now, it appears we're getting another look at how Fox has been impacted as one of its streaming services is closing up shop. FX+, which offered ad-free FX and FXX content to its subscribers will soon cease to exist.
Beginning Tuesday, August 20, FX+'s premium subscription service will be a thing of the past. The service charged $5.99 a month for 1,400 episodes of FX content like Atlanta, Damages, and others completely ad-free. Variety reported most of that content will funnel into the Disney owned Hulu, but that current seasons of FX and FXX programming will be available through “limited-time on-demand viewing." That content will be available via the FXNow app or pay-tv authentication on FXNetworks.com.
Those who did subscribe to FX+ won't have to end their subscriptions, as FX noted that all accounts will be closed Wednesday, August 21. For those that opted in the service through their cable providers, those payments will automatically stop being pulled.
FX+ was launched two years ago with FX Head John Landgraf saying the intention of the service was to bolster revenue and find a bigger audience for shows without selling licensing rights to Netflix. There were signs the service never really gained the traction the network would've liked, but with Disney running Hulu, FX will still be able to widely disperse its content without worrying about Netflix pulling in some money as well.
The upcoming closure further bolsters the library of Hulu, and feels like a power move by Disney as it prepares for the launch of Disney+ in November. With a handful of big streaming services under its control and another potentially big one on the way, Disney has a massive streaming library that will give it an advantage over competitors like Netflix (who isn't worried), Apple, and major players (who are also making major moves) currently planning to set up shop in the next year or two.
Hulu gives Disney a place to put all its FX-owned content, a good deal of which wouldn't be the type of family-friendly programming Disney+ is touted to be. With that said, it has been revealed that every episode of The Simpsons, which has been airing on FXX, will be exclusive to Disney+. Bottom line, don't expect those to come over to Hulu, unless of course, subscribers pick up Disney+ as a Hulu add-on.
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With so many major companies set to enter the world of streaming, it will be interesting to see how the latter half of this year and next year shapes up for television. Be sure to stick with CinemaBlend for updates on that front, and for a look at what's happening with other things regarding television and movies.
