Disney shuts down FX+ SVOD service

FX+ will be shut down next month with its assets funnelled into Hulu, a strategic move confirmed by Disney after its acquisition of 21^st Century Fox.  

Disney-owned streaming video subscription service FX+ is no longer taking on new customers and current customers will retain access to their plan until 20 August when the service will formally end transmission.

According to a statement on the FX Networks website, the decision was made by Disney upon its acquisition of 21^st Century Fox with its content moving to Hulu as the firm pushes one streaming video on-demand (SVOD) service.

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In a statement, FX Networks said: “We deeply appreciate every fan of FX original series who subscribed to our service, and we are more optimistic and excited than ever about FX’s future as a key brand supporting the strategic priorities of The Walt Disney Company.”

FX+ was launched in 2017 with Comcast and offered subscribers to the $5.99 monthly service ad-free access to more than 1,400 episodes of FX programming, which included American Horror Story, Sons of Anarchy and Damages among many more series.

Current seasons of FX Networks’ original series will continue to air on the FX and FXX linear channels and be available for “limited-time on-demand viewing” in the FXNow app and online at FXNetworks.com through pay-TV subscriber authentication, according to the cable programmer.

Variety reported FX Networks chief executive John Landgraf was outspoken about not fuelling the rise of direct-to-consumer streaming services with the network’s programming.

However, when FX Plus was first announced, Landgraf said: “We have been diligent about recapturing the in-season stacking rights for all current original programming and recapturing the rights to all seasons of a large portion of our legacy of great original series.”

Disney has made a strategic move to distribute FX programming via streaming service Hulu, which the Mouse House now fully controls and enables Hulu to gives FX the option to distribute content ad-free as part of a larger service.

Hulu is behind shows including The Handmaid’s Tale and Castel Rock and has seen significant subscriber growth over in the US over the past 18 months.

The closure of FX+ comes as Disney prepares to launch its own streaming service, Disney+ later this year for $6.99 per-month. Disney+ will include all past seasons of The Simpsons, which has been available to stream on FX Networks’ FXNow service.

Around 13 million subscribers will be added to the new direct-to-consumer streaming service in 2019 alone, according to Digital TV Research, with a similar number of subscriber additions to follow in 2020.

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