Advertisers get a glimpse at the ‘New Fox,’ built for more live viewing and shows with domestic appeal
The “New Fox” broadcast network will have more live sports and broader-appeal programs that are made for the U.S.A.
That was the message to advertisers at the network’s upfront sales presentation for the 2018-19 TV season at the Beacon Theatre in New York.
Fox parent 21st Century Fox has agreed to sell the company’s TV and movie production assets and its entertainment cable networks to the Walt Disney Co. for $52.4 billion.
The deal is at least a year from completion, and Disney could face a competing bid from Comcast. But Fox Television Group co-Chairs Dana Walden and Gary Newman pressed ahead with a presentation based on how the Fox broadcast network, which will remain under 21st Century Fox ownership, will operate after the proposed sale.
The formula will include shows that have broader appeal and apparently welcome older viewers. Two of the network’s comedies have stars 60 and older with long track records with traditional network television audiences.
The network is returning “Last Man Standing,” the Fox studio-owned sitcom starring longtime prime-time favorite Tim Allen, which was canceled last year after six seasons on ABC. It will be paired with “The Cool Kids,” which is set in a retirement home and has four comedy veterans — Martin Mull, Vicki Lawrence, David Alan Grier and Leslie Jordan.
Fox has already taken a more middle-of-the-road approach to its dramas. Its biggest hit of the past season, “9-1-1,” is the kind of procedural that was less likely to show up on the network in past seasons, when it favored genre shows that often had niche appeal.
“Last Man Standing” and “The Cool Kids” are scheduled to air on Friday to take advantage of the promotional platform expected to be delivered by “Thursday Night Football,” which moves to Fox. Despite two consecutive seasons of ratings declines, NFL games still by far deliver the largest TV audiences on most weeks.
Adding a night of football in prime time — a first for Fox — is bound to boost the network’s ratings. Walden and Newman predicted that Fox will see ratings rise 15% in the fall among the coveted 18-to-49 age group.
Fox’s investment in more football (the network has carried the NFL on Sunday afternoons since 1994) is tied to its ability to draw viewers who watch live TV and are exposed to commercials. Fox will also have a night of live sports on Saturday, with a lineup of college football games in the fall.
Fox executives also projected that a greater percentage of its programming will be watched live than the programming of its major broadcast competitors.
Walden and Newman also said that when the “New Fox” no longer has to serve as a platform to launch the shows produced by the parent company, the network can devote more time periods to entertainment series that strictly appeal to U.S. audiences.
“We’ll be the only network focused exclusively on the network marketplace,” Walden said.
The strategy will be a major departure from how the networks have picked their prime-time shows in recent years.
As ratings decline, the networks have favored programming from the studios owned by their parent companies that can generate revenue from broadcast and streaming services overseas.
Whether Walden and Newman are around to execute that strategy remains an open question. Their roles in the post-merger era of Disney and Fox have yet to be defined.
Twitter: @SteveBattaglio
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