English Entertainment
Fox to launch My Network TV in September
MUMBAI: Fox will launch My Network TV, a new primetime program network scheduled to debut in September this year. Fox Television Stations, Inc., and Twentieth Television will operate the new venture.
The announcement was made by News Corporation president and COO Peter Chernin, Fox Television Stations chairman Roger Ailes and Fox Television Stations CEO Jack Abernethy.
Upon its launch on 5 September, My Network TV will feature primetime programming from 8 to 10 pm Monday through Saturday, totalling 12 hours of original content per week.
A statement issued by the company says that
Providing broadcasters a viable and station-friendly option for primetime, involving no reverse compensation, My Network TV will position stations with operational flexibility through an appealing affiliation term and attractive inventory split, further building asset value.
Chernin said, “No other media company comes close to Fox when it comes to launching new networks and gauging audience appetites. Over the past 20 years, we’ve proved it time and again with FBC, FX, Fox News Channel and National Geographic Channel among many others. And with My Network TV, we think we’ve come up with a unique format that will resonate with today’s consumer and a model that can be profitable from day one.”
Fox Television Stations’ WWOR/New York, KCOP/Los Angeles, WPWR/Chicago, KDFI/Dallas, WDCA/Washington, D.C., KTXH/Houston, WFTC/Minneapolis, KUTP/Phoenix, WRBW/ Orlando and WUTB/Baltimore will serve as anchor affiliates of My Network TV, representing 24 per cent of the US.
Supported with powerful branding and marketing initiatives that tie-in locally, the service will maintain and strengthen affiliates’ community brand recognition with a complete look and feel of a national network that empowers localism.
Ailes added, “Backed by the strongest media company in the world, My Network TV is a viable alternative brought to you by proven winners who know quality programming. Independent stations are in need of a solid option for primetime and we believe no other company is providing this service to the market.”
Abernethy said, “We’re thrilled to be launching My Network TV this fall. We consider this to be a station-friendly alternative that will deliver more local inventory to its affiliates, uphold each station’s localism and feature quality programming supported by strong branding and marketing. We are looking forward to signing additional affiliates in the coming weeks.”
Twentieth Television’s new hour-long scripted dramas “Desire” and “Secrets” will inaugurate My Network TV. Structured in a 65-episode story arc stripped Monday through Friday for 13 weeks, “Desire” and “Secrets” are based on the worldwide success of the telenovela format. “Desire” chronicles the destruction of a family and the bonds of brotherhood take center stage when two brothers on the run from the mafia find themselves in a heated battle of passion, betrayal, deceit and murder over the woman they both love.
“Secrets” goes deep behind-the-scenes to focus on the glamorous, yet sometimes brutally ruthless fashion industry, in which greed, lust and blind ambition surround a violent corporate takeover of the business’ hottest company. Principal photography on the dramas will commence early March.
Twentieth Television is aggressively developing additional programs and proven formats spanning reality, drama, comedy, game, news, movies and talk for My Network TV as the network develops, while also exploring opportunities with its sister companies. The company is opening its doors to all other major Hollywood studios to negotiate future programming concepts. Programs currently in development include:
“Catwalk” (Twentieth Television) — The ultimate search for the next “It” supermodel begins by crossing the country to discover 30 of the hottest, hippest and freshest faces who will compete for the once in a lifetime opportunity to be catapulted into stardom.
“Celebrity Love Island” [Granada (“Nanny 911”)] — Six gorgeous celebrity and six non-celebrity singletons are thrown together in a fantasy island setting, where a star-studded search for love takes place.
“On Scene” (Fox News) — This crime investigative series will cover all angles, examine all of the evidence and trace every single clue of the most compelling crimes committed today.
“America’s Brainiest” (working title) [Celador (“Who Wants to Be A Millionaire”)] — This quiz show, based on the hit British program, will find the country’s smartest individuals and reveal them in an exciting format.
In addition, Twentieth Television is in advanced negotiations with FremantleMedia North America (“American Idol”) on an international format.
UK: The aerial is losing its grip. As broadband becomes the default way Britons watch television, the UK is edging towards a decisive, and divisive, question: should Freeview be switched off by 2034? The issue, highlighted in reporting by The Guardian, has exposed deep fault lines over access, affordability and the future of public service broadcasting.
For nearly 25 years, Freeview has delivered free-to-air television from the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 to almost every corner of the country. Even now, it remains the UK’s largest TV platform, used in more than 16m homes and on around 10m main household sets. Yet the same broadcasters that built it are now pressing for its closure within eight years.
Their case rests on a structural shift in viewing. Smart TVs, superfast broadband and the Netflix-led streaming boom have pulled audiences online. Advertising economics have followed. By 2034, the number of homes using Freeview as their main TV set is forecast to fall from a peak of almost 12m in 2012 to fewer than 2m, making digital terrestrial television, or DTT, increasingly costly to sustain.
But critics say the rush to switch off risks abandoning those least able, or least willing, to move online.
“I don’t want to be choosing apps and making new accounts,” says Lynette, 80, from Kent. “It is time-consuming and irritating trying to work out where I want to be, to remember the sequence of clicks, with hieroglyphics instead of words. If I make a mistake I have to start again.”
Lynette is among nearly 100,000 people who have signed a “save Freeview” petition launched by campaign group Silver Voices. She fears the government is about to “take [Freeview] away from me and others who either don’t like, can’t afford, or can’t use online versions”.
Official figures underline the fault lines. A report commissioned by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport estimates that by 2035, 1.8m homes will still depend on Freeview. Ofcom’s analysis shows those households are more likely to be disabled, older, living alone, female, and based in the north of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Freeview is owned by the public service broadcasters through Everyone TV, which also operates Freesat and the newer streaming platform Freely. After two years of review, DCMS is expected to set out its position soon, drawing on three options proposed by Ofcom: a costly upgrade of Freeview’s ageing technology; maintaining a bare-bones service with only core PSB channels; or a full switch-off during the 2030s.
The broadcasters have rallied behind the third option. They argue that 2034 is the logical cut-off, when transmission contracts with network operator Arqiva expire. By then, they say, the cost of broadcasting to a dwindling audience will far outweigh the returns from TV advertising.
Ofcom agrees a crunch point is approaching. In July, the regulator warned of a “tipping point” within the next few years, after which it will no longer be commercially viable for broadcasters to carry the costs of DTT.
Others see risks beyond economics. Questions remain over whether internet TV can reliably deliver emergency broadcasts, such as the daily Covid updates, in the way that universally available DTT can. The UK radio industry has also warned that an internet-only future for TV could push up distribution costs and force some radio stations off air if PSBs no longer share Arqiva’s mast network.
“It is a political hot potato,” says Dennis Reed, founder of Silver Voices, who says he has “dissociated” his organisation from the government’s stakeholder forum, which he believes is “heavily biased” towards streaming.
The Future TV Taskforce, representing the PSBs, counters that moving online could “close the digital divide once and for all”. “We want to be able to plan to ensure that no one is left behind,” a spokesperson says, adding that rising DTT costs could otherwise mean cuts to programme budgets.
The numbers show the scale of the challenge. Of the 1.8m Freeview-dependent homes projected for 2035, around 1.1m are expected to have broadband but not use it for TV. The remaining 700,000 are forecast to lack a broadband connection altogether.
Veterans of the analogue switch-off, completed in 2012 after 76 years, recall similar fears of “TV blackout chaos”. Around 6 per cent of households were labelled “digital refuseniks”, yet a targeted help scheme and a national campaign, fronted by a robot called Digit Al voiced by Matt Lucas, delivered a largely smooth transition.
This time, the BBC is less keen to foot the bill. Tim Davie, the outgoing director general, has said the corporation should not fund a comparable support programme for a Freeview switch-off.
Research for Sky by Oliver & Ohlbaum suggests that with early awareness campaigns and digital inclusion measures, only about 330,000 households would ultimately need hands-on help ahead of a 2034 shutdown.
Meanwhile, viewing habits continue to fragment. Audience body Barb says 7 per cent of UK households no longer own a TV set, choosing to watch on other devices. In December, YouTube overtook the BBC’s combined channels in total UK viewing across TVs, smartphones and tablets, albeit measured at a minimum of three minutes.
That shift may accelerate. YouTube has recently blocked Barb and its partner Kantar from accessing viewing session data, limiting transparency just as online platforms consolidate power.
“When the government chose British Satellite Broadcasting as the ‘winner’ in satellite TV it was Rupert Murdoch’s Sky instead that came out on top,” says a senior TV executive quoted by The Guardian. “There already is such an outsider ready to be the winner in the transition to internet TV; it is YouTube.”
Freeview’s future now hangs on a familiar British dilemma: modernise fast and risk exclusion, or protect universality and pay the price. Either way, the aerial’s days as king of the living room look numbered.
