Folks, it’s the end of an era. The changing of the guard. The passing of the hilarious torch. The Simpsons is gone for good from Channel Ten, and is officially moving over to Channel Seven.
After a run of over two decades on Ten, Fox terminated its contract with the struggling network last October amid the financial crisis that saw US network CBS swoop in and take the broadcaster over.
That left the local distribution rights to Fox shows open to new bidders, and Channel Seven has swooped, stitching up the rights to bring The Simpsons back to free-to-air TV in Australia.
Seven’s new deal with Fox is said to be worth somewhere in the realm of $40 million, a far cry from Ten’s previous Fox contract which carried a burdensome price tag of $90 million.
Seven’s deal reportedly cherry picks the rights to a number of proven high-performing Fox shows, though the only two confirmed at this time are The Simpsons and M*A*S*H. Industry speculation suggests that it also includes the rights to Modern Family and new medical drama The Resident as well, though Seven has not confirmed this.
Director of network programming Angus Ross stated that the new deal was a trimmed down version of Ten’s, which removes the prior output agreement that Ten had – meaning they take an entire catalogue of shows as a whole – and instead focuses on finding shows that can fill existing gaps in the market.
Seven has no appetite for output agreements and prefers to look for programming gaps in the marketplace and the smart acquisitions to fill them.
It’s not known at this stage when The Simpsons will appear on Seven, or what channel the network will slot it into.
Our take? It should do the right bloody thing and slot it into its natural 6pm home.
That’s where The Simpsons belongs in this country, dag nab it.
