The potential, actual death of the Fox Broadcasting Company

This article points out an oft-overlooked aspect of Disney's deal to buy 21st Century Fox - that the way the deal is structured, the leftover "New Fox" will keep the Fox network. Which is being severed from 20th Century Fox Television, seemingly defeating the entire reason for its existence and depriving it of the revenues from the post-network market for its shows - syndication, streaming, home video...

I don't know how to feel about this. Although Fox is, quite famously, not averse to the characteristic Murdoch trafficking in pandering to the lowest common denominator, it has long taken more creative risks than the Big Three networks have, and as with all risks, some have paid off for them, quite handsomely (e.g. The Simpsons, In Living ColorThe X-Files) and some have been commercial failures but cult hits (e.g. Firefly). Indeed, the network's very existence was a massive risk, given the hegemony of its competition and the fact that Fox, at least initially, has had to make do with a much weaker affiliate body than the other networks (as they all dated to the earliest days of television, they were able to get and keep the plum VHF signals that had better reception over the air than Fox's mostly-UHF network).

I am worried because of the job losses that would accompany any outright dissolution of the network, even if that is a nuclear option. I am worried because if anyone has the stones to replace the Fox network, in essence or in function, it is the Sinclair Broadcast Group, which has demonstrated little to no interest in tapping into the New York/LA-based creative community (or, indeed, any creative talent anywhere) to fill its network up with entertainment programming and is all too eager to take its brand of right-wing propaganda national. I am worried because, if not Sinclair, I don't know if anyone has the ambition or imagination to properly take Fox's place - as a top-down network, or a cooperative, or what. And in any event, the network's death, were it to happen, would be slow, painful, and quite conspicuously drag down the affiliate body - a chunk of which is aforementioned plum VHF signals*, poached from the other networks two decades ago.

*the digital transition has shuffled some of these stations to UHF, which is actually stronger now, but they keep their catchier numbers as PSIPs

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