APAC: D’oh! Fox cartoons are officially without a home on Aussie free-to-air

Won’t somebody please think of the children?

As previously reported, negotiations between Fox and Australia’s Channel Ten had taken a turn for the worse. As a result, the financially struggling network had been forced to suspend all Fox programming, including The Simpsons, which it had aired for 25 years. Despite hopes from cartoon fans that this would be a temporary move, on October 30th Fox officially announced that it would be ending its contract with Ten immediately.

While it was initially reported that this was due to Fox being apprehensive over Ten’s money troubles, it now appears that the broadcasting giant is unhappy with the purchase of Ten by rival broadcaster CBS; in fact, the now terminated contract originally wasn’t set to expire until June 2019. Given the CBS sale has received legal and governmental approval and seems certain to be finalised soon, the timing of this announcement by Fox seems to unambiguously demonstrate its opinion of the deal.

For Aussie fans of The Simpsons, Futurama, and Bob’s Burgers, there currently isn’t much good news. Subscribers to the paid service Foxtel will of course have continued access to these shows, but no free-to-air networks have announced a bid for any Fox programs yet.

Hopefully one of them takes advantage of this crisitunity soon.