Boo-Urns: Channel 10 Has Lost The Rights To ‘The Simpsons’
It's the first time 'The Simpsons' hasn't been on free-to-air TV in 25 years.
In a blow to every Aussie who grew up watching The Simpsons at 6pm on Channel 10, it looks like Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie no longer have a home on Australian free-to-air TV.
Channel 10 has lost the rights to air Fox shows including The Simpsons, This Is Us and Modern Family in Australia after some last minute negotiations fell apart. It’s all part of the mess surrounding Channel 10 going into voluntary administration, and being bought by CBS.
As part of that debacle, Channel 10 has been attempting to renegotiate some of the contracts allowing the network to air US shows, but according to The Daily Telegraph, negotiations over two of its staple shows have fallen apart “at the eleventh hour”.
“We did go back and forth but we couldn’t come to an arrangement,” a spokesman for Fox, which owns The Simpsons, said. “The volume of content being proposed didn’t meet our expectations.”
A spokesperson for Channel 10 confirmed the bad news to Junkee, saying Fox had “verbally terminated” its contract with 10. “Fox content is not playing on Network Ten at this stage,” the spokesperson said.
That means not only The Simpsons, but also shows like Bob’s Burgers, Fresh Off The Boat and M*A*S*H will no longer air on Channel 10’s secondary station, Eleven.
If there’s any silver lining to this undeniably shitty news, it’s that Channel 10 can now use the millions of dollars it will save on US shows to invest in local content.