With a big hit on its hands ? and perhaps more in the pipeline ? things seem to be looking up at FX.
Then again, hopes were high at FX last September, too. The channel had just added millions of subscribers and was about to launch in New York on Time Warner Cable. What's more, parent company News Corp. had handed over a load of expensive high-profile off-net programming, including The Practice, Ally McBeal and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
But things didn't work out quite as planned. The New York launch was blown away by Sept. 11, which drove viewers to news programming. And for months afterward, The Practice and Ally failed to draw the ratings the network expected.
?There's no doubt we started the year off with basically being knocked back on our heels a bit,? says Peter Liguori, president and CEO of FX Networks. But, he says, he'll take the year the way it turned out in the end. ?I think this network is an incredibly effective counterpuncher.?
FX limped along until March, filling holes in its schedule with such standbys as M*A*S*H and Married With Children and creating a Friday movie night. The network got a bit of a boost when NASCAR season started. But the big horsepower was supplied by its original series, The Shield, starring Michael Chiklis as a cop described as Al Capone with a badge. FX had received good reviews for the original movies it had produced but had never launched a dramatic series.
FX protected The Shield using movies as a lead-in on Tuesday nights, and the show responded with a 4.1 rating for its premiere ? a record for cable that was recently topped by USA's The Dead Zone. The show gained notoriety when its content ? barrier-breaking for basic cable because of its nudity, violence and adult situations ? scared several advertisers away. But Liguori insists the show's quality was more important than the ratings.
?There does exist a space between general entertainment cable networks and HBO that we can fill. And there is an audience there that is looking for more challenging programming,? Liguori said. ?We think that [The Shield] set a benchmark in the world of basic cable, showed what opportunities exist for our advertisers, for the creative community, for affiliates. And it truly seeded a brand for FX.?
The Shield helped catapult FX to its best prime-time quarter. With a few days remaining the network is above a 1 rating in households for the first time, and, more important to advertisers, it ranked seventh among adults 18 to 49.
?We're by far and away not there, but I think when you talk about the arc of the year, I would say we've ended the first round pretty well,? Liguori said.
Well enough for ad buyers, who are investing more ad dollars in the network during the upfront and paying higher prices for spots. That has Liguori thinking FX will return to strong double-digit bottom-line growth next year.
Kagan World Media estimates FX's 2002 cash flow at $119.8 million and sees that rising to $136 million next year. The network spent $225.3million on programming and that will rise to $252.3 million in 2003.
The network plans to build on its success with a prime-time movie strategy (8 to 10 p.m. on weeknights) and more original programming, including movies. A new film, R.F.K., will premiere Aug. 25 and another, about the Pentagon Papers break-in at Daniel Ellsberg's psychiatrist's office, is scheduled to air at the end of the year.
The network last month gave the green light to a new series called Lucky, starring John Corbett of Sex and the City. The show is about a man with a gambling addiction who lives in Las Vegas. It's a comedy with many dramatic moments, according to Liguori.
Lucky isn't likely to air until the second quarter of next year.
?I'd rather go next summer on something like Lucky, as opposed to rushing it and winding up in the teeth of either sweeps or network shows,? Liguori said. ?We tend to slow-cook things, because we feel it maximizes the creative.?
Looking for either a comedy as a companion to Lucky or another drama, FX also has a handful of other shows in development. The network also is considering some reality-programming ideas.
The network is working on a project with Paul Reiser that would be produced by Columbia Tri-Star Television. It's also working on a show called Snitch, written by Sopranos writer Jason Cahill and produced by Paramount TV and Columbia.
?We're very selective when we do pilots, because it's a significant amount of money for us,? Liguori said. ?We're not in a position where we're filling time slots. We're really in a position of saying ?Let's put something on the air that we believe in.?
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