British pay television channel, 2004?2021
Television channel
Fox
(stylised as
FOX
) was a British pay
television channel
serving the United Kingdom and Ireland, owned by
Fox Networks Group
, a unit of
Disney International Operations
. It launched on 12 January 2004 as
FX289
, then changed its name to
FX
in April 2005 (similar to the
American FX
), and rebranded to FOX in January 2013. Featuring a mix of comedies and drama series, the channel's programming targeted adults from 18 to 35 years old.
[1]
It was announced on 17 May 2021 that Fox would cease broadcasting in the UK and Ireland on 1 July 2021. Most of its content was moved to
Star
on
Disney+
.
[2]
The channel ceased broadcasting as planned on that day.
History
[
edit
]
FX289 (2004?05)
[
edit
]
The channel launched on 12 January 2004
[3]
[4]
branded as
FX289
, in reference to its
Sky
EPG
number.
[5]
In its early years, it mainly broadcast films from the
20th Century Fox
library.
FX (2005?2013)
[
edit
]
The channel was rebranded as
FX
as it moved in the Sky EPG on 21 April 2005.
[4]
[5]
As FX, the channel targeted a demographic of mainly males.
[5]
Unlike
its American counterpart
, it promoted and aired both Fox-produced and non-Fox-produced shows. It had a similar format to its American sister channel, with a schedule consisting largely of Fox-produced shows, including comedies such as
Arrested Development
,
Family Guy
,
[6]
American Dad!
and
King of the Hill
, and
dramas
such as
Millennium
,
The Shield
,
The X-Files
, and
NYPD Blue
. Non-Fox-produced shows rerun or receiving their UK premiere on the channel include
The Walking Dead
,
[6]
Falling Skies
,
[6]
Babylon 5
,
Carnivale
,
Highlander
,
JAG
,
[6]
NCIS
,
[6]
Sleeper Cell
,
E-Ring
and
Huff
,
Nip/Tuck
,
Generation Kill
,
True Blood
,
[6]
Mob City
and
Dexter
.
[6]
The channel also produced original content such as the sketch show
No Signal!
[7]
On 12 September 2005, a two-hour timeshift service -
FX +
, was launched on Sky Digital.
[8]
This was followed up with the launch of
FX +1
two years later on 10 December 2007.
[9]
However, the launch of that network led to some confusion as FX + had not been changed to reflect this, leading to two networks having similar names (FX +, FX +1) and viewers assuming a mistake or a double-over of the channel.
[10]
FX +1 was deemed to be a "filler" network, being launched by Fox to hold up the space for another network.
On 8 April 2008, it was announced that FX HD would launch on 21 April, replacing FX +1. The channel ran from 7:00pm-2:00am, and broadcast as an commercial-free service broadcasting entirely separate schedule from the SD feed, only broadcasting programmes originally made in high-definition.
[11]
The channel's launch was delayed by a week to the 28th, due to "technical problems at the transmission end", and launched at 10:00pm on that day.
[12]
On 1 September 2008, FX + became a one-hour timeshift service.
On 24 April 2009, FX HD became a simulcast of FX, broadcasting
HD
content when possible but only broadcasting between 7:00pm and 2:00am every day. The channel also joined
Virgin Media
's digital cable TV lineup on channel 158 on 30 July 2009.
[13]
On 5 January 2010, FX HD increased its broadcast hours to match its SD counterpart.
Fox (2013?2021)
[
edit
]
In November 2012, it was announced that FX would be renamed as Fox at the start of 2013.
[14]
The channels, FX, FX + and FX HD were rebranded as Fox, Fox + and Fox HD on at
9:00 p.m.
GMT on 11 January 2013 with the beginning of the tenth season of
NCIS
.
[6]
With this change, the target demographic switched to both men and women aged between 18 and 35 years old.
[1]
New programmes added to the schedule included
Louie
,
The Ricki Lake Show
,
Men at Work
,
Da Vinci's Demons
and the second season of
The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret
, while many of the programmes that featured on FX continued to broadcast such as
The Walking Dead
,
Dexter
,
True Blood
,
Falling Skies
,
Family Guy
, and
NCIS
. Fox also planned to commission up to 50 hours of original UK content by the end of the year, expecting to spend between £5m and £10m.
[15]
Fox was removed from the BT
YouView
platform on 1 March 2016. BT stated in an e-mail to customers that Fox had "changed the way they offer their TV channels to TV providers."
[16]
Following Disney's acquisition of 21st Century Fox, including Fox Networks Group International, the channel falls under ultimate ownership of Walt Disney Direct-to-Consumer and International.
On 18 March 2017, Fox + was renamed Fox +1.
[17]
In February 2019, the channel rebranded for the first time in more than four years. The rebrand included a new on-air identity which is more modern compared to earlier logos and idents.
[18]
Closure
[
edit
]
On 17 May 2021, Disney announced that Fox would be closing at the end of June, with all of the channel's content moving to
Star
hub of
Disney+
.
[2]
"On 30 June, the Fox channel in the UK will close," announced a spokesperson for the broadcaster. "Many titles will become available on Star on Disney+ and will be announced in the near future. We appreciate the support of our UK fans and can't wait to keep sharing the best stories with you. Star on Disney+ serves as the home of movies and television from Disney's creative studios, including Disney Television Studios (20th Television and ABC Signature), FX Productions and 20th Century Studios."
[2]
The channel closed on 1 July 2021,
[19]
[20]
with its website redirecting to Disney+.
[2]
The final programme that was scheduled to be shown on Fox was
The Republic of Doyle
, season 5, episode 12: "Sleight of Hand" at 4:00 to 5:00am on Fox HD/SD and from 5:00 to 6:00am on Fox +1.
[21]
One hour of
teleshopping
was broadcast on each channel before a screen card stating the channel had closed was shown, though the teleshopping was not on the
EPG
listings on Fox +1.
On Sky, Fox was on channel 124. On 1 July 2021, after Fox's closure,
Sky Nature
was moved from channel 130 to channel 124. Its secondary channel was not moved, which remained on channel 893.
[22]
Programming
[
edit
]
In addition to British and American programming, the channel has aired a number of international programmes. These include
Last Man Standing
and
The Nominees
from Australia;
Jo
from France;
Charlie Jade
, a co-production between Canada and South Africa; and the Flemish series
Matrioshki
, which was shown with subtitles.
Original content has also aired on the channel, including
No Signal!
which aired from February to April 2009.
For several weeks from 5 December 2005, FX carried a strand of programming from the Fox-owned American channel
Fuel TV
. The strand was identified as
FX Presents Fuel TV
, and made use of Fuel TV's US branding graphics. The strand ran for an hour from
10:00 a.m.
, and was repeated in the early hours of the following morning. In August 2015, Fox announced that a variety of
Adult Swim
programming would air on the channel including adult animated sci-fi comedy
Rick and Morty
, starting Thursday, 10 September of that year.
[23]
On 10 September 2015,
Adult Swim
moved to Fox along with truTV, airing Rick and Morty and Mr. Pickles as its first day line up.
[24]
As of 2016, it aired on Fridays from Midnight to 1:00 a.m.
Funny as Fox
[
edit
]
Similar to Fox's
Animation Domination
in America.
Funny as Fox
was a programming block which aired shows similarly to its American counterpart, such as
Family Guy
and
American Dad!
(both now shown on
ITV2
). The block name was the same as Fox's slogan. Funny As Fox used to air
People of Earth
until late 2019.
Funny As Fox aired, on some days, from 9pm to 4am. This was regularly not the case as some premieres shown on Fox were shown around 9pm to 11pm so the block normally aired from 11pm to 4am. The main slogan for the block was "Late Night, Every Night... Literally!".
Final programming
[
edit
]
Source:
[21]
Former programming
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
"FOX"
. Fox International Channels. Archived from
the original
on 4 March 2016
. Retrieved
11 January
2013
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
Kanter, Jake (17 May 2021).
"Fox Channel To Close In The UK, With Shows Like 'War Of The Worlds' Moving To Disney+"
.
Deadline Hollywood
. Retrieved
17 May
2021
.
- ^
"FX UK: a big new channel from FOX - Post 148062 - TV Forum"
.
tvforum.uk
. Retrieved
2 March
2022
.
- ^
a
b
Jay, Alan (14 April 2005).
"FX moves EPG positions on Sky"
.
Digital Spy
.
Hearst Magazines UK
. Retrieved
11 January
2013
.
- ^
a
b
c
Chapman, Iain (7 September 2004).
"FX289 to undergo design revamp"
.
Digital Spy
.
Hearst Magazines UK
. Retrieved
11 January
2013
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
Martinovic, Paul (11 January 2013).
"FX becomes FOX: New promo video, idents released"
.
Digital Spy
. Hearst Magazines UK
. Retrieved
11 January
2013
.
- ^
Busfield, Steve (6 February 2009).
"Organ Grinder: Can homegrown FX show No Signal live up to The Wire and Family Guy?"
.
The Guardian
.
- ^
https://forums.digitalspy.com/discussion/272674/fx-2-launches-september-12th
- ^
https://www.digitalspy.com/tech/satellite/a81422/fx-one-hour-timeshift-launches/
- ^
"fox +1 ? Entertainment Interactive"
.
www.entertainment-iuk.com
. Retrieved
11 September
2018
.
- ^
Welsh, James; Wilkes, Neil (8 April 2008).
"FXHD to launch this month"
. Digital Spy.
- ^
"FX HD to launch on the 21st? Is this correct please?"
. FX. 4 September 2008. Archived from
the original
on 11 February 2012.
- ^
"Virgin Media and Channel 4 bring 4HD to millions of TV screens"
. Virgin Media. 29 July 2009. Archived from
the original
on 17 February 2013
. Retrieved
11 January
2013
.
- ^
Fletcher, Alex (15 November 2012).
"FX rebrands as FOX for 2013"
.
Digital Spy
. Retrieved
11 September
2018
.
- ^
White, Peter (10 January 2013).
"Fox to spend millions on original UK content push"
.
Broadcast
. Retrieved
11 January
2013
.
- ^
Gamp, Joe (10 February 2016).
"BT loses FOX channel deal ahead of new 'The Walking Dead' series"
.
NME
. Retrieved
2 March
2022
.
- ^
"Overnights.tv - TV Ratings News"
.
- ^
"FOX UK Rebrand 2019: Ident B"
.
YouTube
.
- ^
Gevertz, Jack (30 June 2021).
"Here's why Fox UK is no longer available to watch on TV"
.
Manchester Evening News
. Retrieved
2 March
2022
.
- ^
Mustafa, Filiz (1 July 2021).
"Viewers react to Fox closing in the UK: Here's what Disney said about the change"
.
HITC
. Retrieved
2 March
2022
.
- ^
a
b
"FOX SCHEDULE - 30 JUN"
.
Fox
. Archived from
the original
on 5 June 2021
. Retrieved
5 June
2021
.
- ^
"List of line-up changes on Sky (UK and Ireland) in 2021 ? TVCL ? TV Channel Lists"
.
www.tvchannellists.com
.
- ^
"Rick and Morty are coming to FOX UK"
.
Digital Spy
. 5 August 2015.
- ^
[1]
"Adult Swim UK's First Official Night On FOX UK HD Continuity," on
YouTube
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
i
j
k
l
m
"TV Guide"
.
Sky.com
. Archived from
the original
on 5 February 2004
. Retrieved
16 December
2023
.
- ^
a
b
c
"TV Guide"
.
Sky.com
. Archived from
the original
on 19 April 2004
. Retrieved
16 December
2023
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
"TV Guide"
.
Sky.com
. Archived from
the original
on 9 December 2004
. Retrieved
16 December
2023
.
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