LOST on FOX?!
Disney’s international mega hit “LOST” might soon be banging the drum for FOX, one of the big competitors of Disney’s network ABC. No need to worry if you are in the US. Certainly the fifth season will be back on ABC. What I am talking about is Germany.
The first four seasons of “LOST” in Germany premiered on “Premiere”, a pay tv station to move on to the free tv station “Pro7″ roughly six months later. While Premiere is a partner of Disney as it also provides the platform via which the Disney Channel is offered in Germany, Pro7 is “just” a regular customer for Disney tv products. But now “Premiere” seems to be out of the picture…
Mid March Fox International Channels announced that they would bring a tv station under the name “FOX” to Germany. And now Michael Westhoven, Fox Director for Germany, Austria and Switzerland announced that the station would start broadcasting on May 19. Announced programming includes the German premier of LOST’s fourth season roughly six months prior to its free tv premiere in Germany. In other words: FOX will replace Premiere in this regard. Considering the success of LOST in Germany this might be the most important programming announcement securing FOX a basic number of subscribers … so FOX might need to say “THANKS” to Disney!
Oh and before I forget it: while the station will also feature numerous other German premiers of US shows from various US producers / stations e.g. from HBO (such as “Churb your enthusiasm”) and reruns (such as “SOPRANOS”), there is also one major Disney product to come to FOX: “GREEK”. The series from ABC Family has been raved about online since the premier of its first season and has developed into one of the success stories for ABC Family, also breaking ground in its fair treatment of a gay storyline involved. “GREEK” tells stories around the members of several fraternities on a college campus mixing drama and comedy elements to an addictive result.
For those of you wondering why Disney isn’t premiering such outstanding shows on its own stations in Germany: besides the core Disney stations (Disney Channel, Toon Disney, Playhouse Disney as well as Jetix, which they acquired as part of an international deal under its original name FOX Kids) Disney only has minority stakes in the kids’ station “Super RTL” and the free tv station “RTL II” (which is a smaller player). At least at this point Disney hasn’t really entered the German tv market with a major station targeting anyone outside the under 16 age group. Maybe they should? What do you think??
