Toon Zone Talkback - FX Acquires "Simpsons Movie" for Broadcast

Why does FX has to pay for what it should own? FX is "Fox Gone Cable." The money is just changing hands from one department of News Corp. to the other, and what is the point of that?

Is this like TimeWarner and CN not speaking to each other, or something different?
 
Yeah, I'm surprised F/X hasn't already aquired the rights to the earlier episodes. Or maybe the Simpsons is doing so well in syndication that Fox doesn't want to mess with their biggest cash cow just yet by putting it in cable reruns that'll draw from the syndication ratings.
 
Just because they're owned by the same company doesn't mean 20th Century Fox and FX aren't in competition. In fact, being owned by the same company might even increase the competition. Let's say airing The Simpsons Movie makes FX $1,000,000, and Fox gets 10% of that. If Fox didn't charge FX anything for movie rights, than Fox's profit margin would go down $100,000 dollars, while FX's profit margin would go up $100,000, and when it comes time for Old Man Murdoch to hand out raises or increase someone's budget, the department that made $100,000 more is probably going to get the lion's share.
 
Makes me wonder how FX will deal with the three things that got the movie its PG-13 rating (Bart's uncovered doodle, Homer's double deuce, and Marge's "Somebody throw the g*ddamn bomb!"). Although, from what I understand, as a cable network, they can probably get away with more than FOX can.
 
Given the standards at FX I can see 2/3 of the content remind. If they do remove the doodle, it'll lose the visual gag. Al Jean did talk about how they would add a dot in small print reading ONLY ON THE DVD.:D Bummer that the movie will be pan and scam.
 
They do? I hear they pixilate it. Plus, if they cut it out, while not important to the plot, they ruin a perfectly good "Screw You" joke in the process.
 
Hey, it's still a perfectly good extended gag in its own right - Ebert (assuming anyone here cares about him) considered it the most extended laugh in the movie, or something like that. I wouldn't miss it too much.
 
there's a big difference though, the Simpsons has a library 4 times larger than most shows in syndication. IMO, FX should be airing 2 or 3 episodes a day, and it won't take away from the local stations, because if you don't own the DVDs, you could go years between seeing certain episodes.

In NYC they started the 7 PM airing from Season 1 back in September. They are now halfway into Season 4. At the rate they air them, they will get to the end of that run, plus the run of the current season at the same time the next season ends in 2009 (if there is one because of the WGA strike).
 
And see it you shall, considering how F/X runs their movies into the ground, if you don't catch it on the first airing, you can catch it on the 78 repeat airings over the following month.
 
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