Anthony Anderson (Black-ish)
Aziz Ansari (Master of None)
Zach Galifianakis (Baskets)
Donald Glover (Atlanta) — pictured
William H. Macy (Shameless)
Jeffrey Tambor (Transparent)
Courtesy of FXFX is expanding its ad-free service to more cable subscribers.
The network has inked a deal with Cox to bring the $6-per-month offering to the cable company’s members. Beginning next month, Cox subscribers will be able to add FX+ to their bundles to give them commercial-free streaming of FX shows.
The deal comes about two weeks after FX launched the service with Comcast, offering in-season stacking of all 17 current FX and FXX original series, in addition to all seasons of older FX shows such as Damages and Nip/Tuck. FX Networks CEO John Landgraf says Cox is the second of several deals he expects to make to bring FX+ to more cable subscribers, noting that FX is talking to all of the major cable providers and that “there’s interest across the board.”
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In addition to striking a deal with Cox, FX has negotiated for the rights to all seasons to an additional 15 FX series, including The Americans, Atlanta and Better Things. This means FX+ will now offer every season of more than 30 FX originals and more than 1,300 episodes of programming.
Landgraf says that FX+ now has subscription streaming rights for 85 percent of the network’s library, which consists of about 1,500 episodes in total. “Our intent is that every episode of every show that FX has made, and will make, will be available at all times, on any device, to an FX+ subscriber,” he says. That meant negotiating with every subscription streaming service where FX had previously struck deals to distribute its content, including Amazon and Hulu.
Landgraf declined to provide specifics about early performance of FX+ on Comcast but said that interest has “exceeded” his expectations. “People have not only subscribed to it, but they’re using it,” he adds.
FX+ is only available to cable subscribers. Other companies, including broadcaster CBS and premium cable networks HBO and Showtime, have offered stand-alone streaming services not tied to cable membership. Landgraf notes how difficult it can be for an ad-supported channel like FX to assemble its content into the FX+ offering, adding, “I’m content with the fact that the bulk of the low hanging fruit of opportunity lies within our current system.”
The full library of FX+ programming is expected to roll out on the service in the coming months, with a complete lineup available in 2018.
