Fox Asia going day and date with the US

Fox’s international channels in Asia will show a raft of drama series within hours of their US TX under a new day and date initiative.

Fox International Channels and other international channel operators have made increasing efforts to get content to local channels as soon as possible to mitigate the effects of illegal downloading. FIC has already committed to launching series including Wayward Pines on its channels within hours of the US transmission.

Fox said its new initiative, dubbed ‘Express’ and starting this month, will see it take that strategy to next level and “dramatically slashing windows to nearly eliminate [the] wait time to watch their favorite shows in this region”.

New shows covered by the Express push include season five of The Walking Dead on the Asian Fox channel, Ray Donovan season two and Homeland season four on Fox Movies Premium and MasterChef Junior US on the Star World channel.

The Asian FX net will have Da Vinci’s Demons (pictured) season three within 24 hours of the US launch and season four of American Horror Story and season seven of Sons of Anarchy within five days of the US.

The drive to compress transmission windows also covers factual programming. The Asian Nat Geo channel will show the new Survive the Tribe series within 24 hours of it going out in the US.

Joon Lee, managing director of FIC Hong Kong said: “Why should audiences in Asia have to wait to watch the shows they want? Fans will seek out ways to watch their favorite shows regardless so we want to make it easier for them, not more difficult.

“This is just the start for us and we plan to do all we can to work with our platform partners to cater to their subscribers needs and deter viewers from turning to other means to accessing content.”