Fox International Channels was formed in 1993 to serve as the unit for the international multi-media business owned at the time by
Rupert Murdoch
's
News Corporation
after the purchase of
Star TV
with the purpose to serve its international channels.
[1]
[2]
In 1997, Fox International Channels purchased NHNZ, a producer of documentaries. NHNZ had a stake in Singapore-based Beach House Pictures.
[3]
In 2001, Fox International Channels entered the Spanish market with Fox and National Geographic Channel adding Fox Crime later on.
[4]
In January 2004, the
FX289
channel for UK and Ireland was launched, later rebranded as
FX
as it moved to Sky EPG in April 2005.
[5]
The channel was rebranded as Fox on January 11, 2013.
[6]
In early 2006, Fox International Channels formed a production company called Fox Toma 1 with Argentine content producer Ernesto Sandler. FIC purchased a majority interest in Telecolombia, renaming the production company Fox Telecolombia in June 2007. This was to boost Spanish-language original shows for Latin American and the US. Fox Telecolombia would still provide
Telefutura
and
RCN
Colombian network with programming.
[7]
In September 2007, FIC purchased a majority share in the international operations of
BabyTV
with the founders retaining the original Israel business.
[8]
[9]
In 2007, the Argentinian
Utilisima
lifestyle channel, which launched in 1996,
[10]
was sold to Fox International Channels.
[10]
The channel went global in 2008, with the addition of a Portuguese feed,
[11]
and ended up being distributed across Latin America, Canada, Spain, New Zealand and Australia and the United States. The US version of the channel launched in May 2010. In 2013, it was rebranded as MundoFox and stopped being available internationally outside of Latin America (excluding Brazil). In July 2017, it was rebranded as
Nat Geo Kids
. Its Brazilian feed was launched separately on October of that same year.
National Geographic Channels International attempted to launch new sister channels in
Nat Geo
in India,
Nat Geo Wild
,
Nat Geo Adventure
, Nat Geo Music and Nat Geo HD, by making them available to the market in May 2008.
[12]
Fox International Channels launched the new
Nat Geo
channels again along with
FX
,
Fox Crime
and BabyTV to add to its existing
Fox History
and the main Nat Geo channel in June 2010.
[13]
In January 2008, Fox International Channels purchased a controlling stake in Real Estate TV (RETV), a UK property-themed channel.
[14]
In April 2008, FIC launched Fox Next in Portugal, on
Meo
's Meo Mix package. Fox Next targets 25-to-44-year-olds and is programmed with series and movies with thematic primetime and weekday blocks.
[15]
In 2008, FIC and Rotana Media Services launched Fox Movies and Fox Series channels in the Middle East market in order to cater to the Arab world and audience to feature American television shows in region.
[16]
[17]
Fox then purchased a stake in Rotana, while the joint venture agreed with Disney to carry Disney and
American Broadcasting Company
content on the two channels for four years.
[18]
With Abu Dhabi Media Company in July 2009, FIC started National Geographic Abu Dhabi Channel.
[17]
In 2008, Fox Broadcasting and
20th Century Fox Television
formed Fox Inkubation, a joint initiative for new animation talent that would allow them to produce two minute shorts as pilots for new series. Fox TV had concurrently started its animation division 20th Century Fox Television Animation with Jennifer Howell, the same executive heading up both Inkubation and Fox TV Animation with Inkubation later being discontinued in 2012, as plans for a late night animation block moved forward and none of its projects got on the air with Howell exiting Fox at the end of her contract in May 2013.
[19]
Fox Life
channel was original developed in Italy then launched in Balkans, Bulgaria, Italy, Japan, Korea, Latin America, Poland, Portugal, Russia and Turkey. FIC made the channel available in Greece on December 1, 2008, in English with Greek dubbing.
[20]
An independent sales and marketing agency was set up in Tallinn, Estonia in June 2009. In March 2011, a Baltic regional office was set up in Tallinn with the independent marketing agency owner, Karoli Kindriks, as regional manager reporting to Ase Ytreland, Managing Director of Fox International Channels for Nordic & Baltic Region.
[21]
On August 19, 2009,
News Corporation
announced that it would reorganize their Asia-Pacific subsidiary
Star TV
in Hong Kong. Star TV was split into
Star India
and
Star Greater China
. A few of such arrangements were that the original Star TV company would take over representation of FIC's channels in the region from
NGC Network Asia, LLC
, and Star itself would transform into a regional operation of Fox International Channels. Meanwhile, Star India would handle Fox-branded channels in India.
[22]
[23]
[24]
In early March 2010, Fox International Channels agreed to move its Middle East and North Africa market channels' operations from Hong Kong and other locations to an Abu Dhabi facility. Its NHNZ subsidiary would also open a production office in Abu Dhabi. Fox, a global online ad network business, would also establish its
Middle East
operations.
[17]
In May 2010, FIC purchased a stake in Aquavision, a
Johannesburg, South Africa
production company, to be managed by NHNZ.
[3]
[25]
In June 2010, FIC and Jan Dekker Holdings formed a joint venture to operate
24Kitchen
in the Dutch market.
[26]
On September 1, 2011, Fox Channels Benelux launched 24Kitchen on
UPC
in the Netherlands, in partnership with Jan Dekker Holdings. It was later launched on other television providers on October 1, 2011.
[27]
In April 2011, FIC Nordic launched
Fox Crime
in Norway.
[28]
Suomi TV, a Finnish free-to-air TV channel, was acquired in January 2012
[29]
and then rebranded as Fox in April 2012, expanding the channel's air time to 12 hours while adding FIC's co-produced series
The Walking Dead
along with 20th Century Fox Television Distribution, National Geographic Channel and
24Kitchen
content.
[28]
On July 1, 2011, Fox Movies was made available in Portugal on pay TV services and Angola and Mozambique on free-to-air TV.
[30]
In October 2011, FIC purchased
Viajar
, a Spanish television travel channel, from
PRISA
.
[31]
On January 23, 2012, FIC and
RCN Television
announced that they would launch a new Spanish-language terrestrial television network named
MundoFox
in the United States as a joint venture.
[32]
The network was formally launched on August 13 that year.
[33]
Fox exited the joint venture in 2015,
[34]
and the network was renamed as MundoMax on July 28 that year,
[35]
[36]
before it ceased operations on November 30, 2016.
[37]
[38]
In May 2012, Fox International Channels Latin America announced that it would acquire
MGM
's share in
LAPTV
,
[39]
which operated The Film Zone, Cinecanal and
Moviecity
. In October 2013, FIC purchased
Paramount
's shares in LAPTV to become the sole owner.
[40]
LAPTV's businesses were later folded into FIC Latin America, and Moviecity was relaunched as Fox+ in November 2014.
Former Fox Networks Group president David Haslingden's Racat Group purchased NHNZ, a New Zealand-based production company for documentaries, and its sister company, Singapore-based company Beach House Pictures, in October 2012 from Fox.
[41]
[42]
Portugal-based Fluid Youth Culture purchased Fuel TV by January 2013.
[43]
On July 1, 2013, Fox Crime was replaced by Fox Network in Norway. FIC also renamed its premium Dutch network Eredivisie Live to Fox Sports Eredivisie, with its channels renamed as Fox Sports 1 through 3.
[44]
In the third quarter of 2013, FIC's French-language channels, including National Geographic Channel, Nat Geo Wild and the travel-based Voyage, were expanded to Africa via RRsat's Global Network and Measat's Africasat-1a.
[45]
On November 6, 2013, Fox International Channels acquired
Setanta
Africa Services Limited, operator of three Africa sports channels, Setanta Africa (English and French), Zuku Sports (East Africa) and the Setanta Action.
[46]
Setanta Africa and Setanta Action were branded as Fox Sports and Fox Sports 2, respectively in August 2014 at the 2014?15 football league kick-off.
[47]
In 2014, FIC took over the distribution of Star World, Star Movies,
National Geographic
-branded channels, Fox-branded channels,
Channel V
International,
Baby TV
and
Sky News
in the Middle East region from Star Select after its closure in the region.
[48]
Fox Television Group was formed in July 2014, encompassing of Fox Broadcasting and
20th Century Fox Television
, and placed under Fox Networks Group.
[49]
In June 2014, Fox Networks Group and
Gail Berman
formed The Jackal Group to provide programming for its various channels.
[50]
In July 2014, Fox Networks Group and
DNA Films
formed DNA TV Limited. Fox Networks Group would have global-first rights with co-financing options to the joint venture's shows. DNA TV would be managed by DNA Films management with Eric Schrier, president of original programming for FX Networks and FX Productions, handling Fox's interest.
[51]
In October 2014, Fox Crime (Spain) was replaced with FoxLife, with the latter's series moving primarily to Fox.
[4]
FIC Turkey, its pay company, and Fox Turkey, its free to air company, were merged in late 2014.
[52]
In the third quarter of 2014, a Fox-branded channel was launched in Sweden via
Com Hem
.
[53]
On November 27, 2014, FIC acquired Jan Dekker Holdings' stake of the 24Kitchen joint venture. FIC also closed the venture's production facility.
[26]
In 2014, A&E Networks Italy (formed in late 2013) took full ownership of the Italian version of
History
TV channel from FIC Italy.
[54]
In early 2014, the versions of Nat Geo Adventure in Asia and Pacific were relaunched as
Nat Geo People
.
[55]
On October 1, 2015, Fox International Channels UK launched
YourTV
, which would target female viewers, on
Freeview
and
YouView
, with the channel later being shut down on September 27, 2019.
[56]
[57]
In 2015, 21st Century Fox and the
National Geographic Society
formed a new joint venture named
National Geographic Partners
that would oversee the Society's commercial ventures.
[58]
This included the U.S. domestic and international versions of National Geographic-branded TV channels, but Fox Networks Group would continue to handle advertisement sales and distribution of these channels.
In January 2016, 21st Century Fox announced a major reorganization of its non-U.S. television businesses. Fox International Channels (FIC), which have been operating separately from 21CF's U.S. domestic television businesses, would be abolished, and the head of its regional divisions would report to CEO
Peter Rice
and COO
Randy Freer
at Fox Networks Group in the United States, instead of the outgoing FIC CEO
Hernan Lopez
, thus absorbing the international television businesses into Fox Networks Group, with the regional divisions being renamed Fox Networks Group Europe, Fox Networks Group Latin America and Fox Networks Group Asia, effectively abolishing Fox International Channels as a separate unit from 21st Century Fox's television business in the United States.
[59]
[60]
[61]
All three international divisions of Fox Networks Group were collectively referred as Fox Networks Group International in 21CF's formal documents (including the group's annual reports).
[62]
:?7?
On December 5, 2017, 21st Century Fox appointed
Uday Shankar
, chairman and CEO of
Star India
, as the company's president for Asia. The new role would oversee Fox's television and online video platform business across the region, and the president of Fox Networks Group Asia would report directly to Shankar (instead of the equivalent at FNG U.S.). This did not affect 20th Century Fox's film business in the region, whose heads would continue to reported to the Charman and CEO of the film company.
[63]
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Disney acquisition and closure
edit
On December 14, 2017,
The Walt Disney Company
formally announced its intention to
acquire most of 21st Century Fox assets
.
[70]
Businesses to be bought by Disney included FX Networks, a share in
National Geographic Partners
, and international operations of Fox Networks Group. The Murdoch family would retain the ownership of
Fox Broadcasting Company
,
Fox Television Stations
,
U.S. domestic operations of Fox Sports
,
Fox News Channel
and
Fox Business Network
, through a new company, eventually named
Fox Corporation
. Disney also acquired the regional
Fox Sports Networks
, but the
U.S. Department of Justice
ordered that those assets be sold within 90 days of closing of the deal due to Disney's majority ownership of
ESPN
.
[71]
On April 10, 2018,
European Commission
officials conducted an unannounced search of Fox Networks Group's
West London
offices, as part of an antitrust inquiry surrounding broadcast rights to sporting events.
[72]
[73]
On March 19, 2019, Fox Corporation was officially spun off from 21st Century Fox, and began trading on the
Nasdaq
.
[74]
The next day, March 20, The Walt Disney Company completed the acquisition of 21st Century Fox.
[75]
This rendered Fox Networks Group as a standalone unit abolished. Within Disney, FX Networks and U.S. operations of National Geographic television channels were placed under
Walt Disney Television
, Disney's new U.S. domestic television unit.
20th Century Fox Television
and
Fox 21 Television Studios
became a part of Disney Television Studios,
[76]
and Fox Networks Group CEO
Peter Rice
was appointed as the Chairman of Walt Disney Television.
[76]
The international businesses of Fox Networks Group would be integrated with Disney's
Direct-to-Consumer & International
division.
[75]
On January 17, 2020, Disney dropped the "Fox" name from the
20th Century Studios
and
Searchlight Pictures
film units, though there were no mention of changes to Fox Networks Group or other Disney-owned Fox-branded units.
[77]
In the following years, Disney begun closing various channels from the Fox Networks Group due to dwindling ratings and to refocus its resources for
Disney+
with the remaining active international Fox channels being rebranded as Star Channels, based upon the
Star
hub available on Disney+, or as FX Channels (with the exception of Japan and Turkey where the channels were renamed as
Dlife
(2nd incarnation) and
Now
respectively), effectively closing Fox Networks Group.
[78]
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