Fox Channel (Germany)

This article is about the German television channel. For other uses, see Fox (disambiguation).
Fox
Launched May 20, 2008
Owned by Fox Networks Group
Country Germany
Broadcast area Germany, Austria, Switzerland
Headquarters Unterföhring, Germany
Replaced Premiere Serie (on Premiere)
Sister channel(s) National Geographic Channel
Website http://www.foxchannel.de/

Fox (also known as Fox Channel or FOX Channel Germany) is a premium cable German television channel dedicated to television drama series.

The channel heavily features American and British drama series from the major broadcast networks and premium cable networks. They are broadcast without interruptions with both German and English audio.

History

On March 10, 2008, News Corporation officially requested a broadcasting license for the FOX International Channels Germany GmbH at the media institute Berlin-Brandenburg (MABB). A month later, the green-light was given for launching the FOX Channel. It launched on May 19, 2008 and became part of the pay television platform Premiere, which was later renamed to Sky Deutschland, in October 2008.[1] As of 2013, FOX Channel can be viewed through most cable operators - as part of a pay-TV package - and Sky Deutschland.

In the beginning, FOX aired HBO television series' like The Sopranos, Sex and the City and Entourage and reruns of shows like The Practice, Magnum, P.I., Law & Order, JAG and The Nanny.

Labeled under 'First on FOX', the channel premiered with critical acclaimed series The West Wing on its launch date May 19, 2008. The political series didn't catch the interest of any other German network before after being considered being "too American". FOX aired all seven seasons with the series finale airing on July 25, 2011. Other shows premiering on FOX have been The Wire, Dirty Sexy Money, Mad Men, The Walking Dead, Da Vinci's Demons, Shameless, Drop Dead Diva, The Big C and American Horror Story.

On April 1, 2009, transmissions switched to the 16:9 format.[2] In October 2010, FOX HD premiered. The new high definition channel became part of the major packages with the SD channel staying on the air. FOX HD is presented in Full HD (1080i).

In 2011, FOX received the rights for the revived Doctor Who series, starting with season five that introduced Matt Smith's incarnation of the Doctor. ProSieben aired the first two seasons back in 2008, but didn't buy more seasons due to lack of ratings. After FOX successfully aired seasons five and six, the channel responded to the desire of the audience and bought the rights for season three and four, finishing them before starting with airing the seventh season in December 2012.

Other British television series that aired on FOX are spy drama Spooks, Ashes to Ashes and Death in Paradise. FOX also took over crime drama Silent Witness, starting with its thirteenth season. The show's first nine seasons previously aired on RTL. Skins became also part of the line-up with its first three seasons. After, however, not many showed interest in the show's second generation, FOX denied interest in airing any future episodes.

In November 2011, FOX successfully bought the pay-TV rights to rerun the first two seasons of legal drama The Good Wife. After a successful run, FOX bought the rights to show new episodes, starting with season three. The free-TV rights are with ProSiebenSat.1 Media who announced the third season to be shown on sixx. However, so far nothing has come of it and season three was released on DVD without a free-TV airing.

After five years on the air, FOX has become a well-known television channel for good television series. On July 10, 2013, The Bridge premiered on FOX after a rerun of the original.

Programming

Series broadcast on the channel include:

References

  1. ↑ "Fox startet bei Premiere bundesweit, in der Schweiz und in Österreich über Kabel, Satellit und IPTV am 4. Oktober" (Press release). Premiere. August 4, 2008.
  2. ↑ "Fox Channel sendet ab 01. April in 16:9 - HDTV-Ableger denkbar". March 9, 2009.
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