Streaming’s Staunchest Critic Is Now Joining Forces With Hulu

(Bloomberg) -- For years, John Landgraf, the chief executive officer of FX Networks, has been one of Hollywood’s most outspoken internet skeptics.

He has criticized Netflix Inc., assailing the streaming service for producing too many shows of dubious quality that overwhelm viewers and critics. He has bemoaned the far-reaching influence of Google and Facebook Inc. And he has fretted about shortening attention spans.

Now, Landgraf is joining the streaming establishment in a major way. 

Last week, FX released almost all of its programming catalog — some 1,600 episodes — on Hulu, the streaming service owned by Landgraf’s new corporate parent, Walt Disney Co. Three days later, FX debuted a new dramatic series, “Devs,” starring Sonoya
Mizuno as a software engineer investigating a mysterious tech company, that will appear under a new brand, “FX on Hulu.”  

FX isn't abandoning cable. But it will make a growing number of series exclusively for the streaming service and put all new episodes of its TV shows on Hulu within hours. The influx of shows from FX will help bulk up Hulu’s original programming slate, which includes “The Handmaid’s Tale” and “Castle Rock,” at a time when technology giants Netflix, Amazon.com Inc. and Apple Inc. are spending more and more on original productions.

 “We can radically increase their volume overnight, just as they can radically increase the number of subscribers we can get our shows too,” Landgraf said during an interview at his Los Angeles office, which overlooks the backlot at Fox.  

Landgraf joined FX in 2004, at a time when the most-talked-about shows on TV were shifting from broadcast to cable. Under Landgraf, FX charmed viewers and critics with a string of award-winning comedies and dramas, including “The Shield,” “American Horror Story” and “Atlanta.” 

Yet in recent years, FX’s position in the home entertainment universe has grown tenuous. The cable model that funded the network’s investment in original programming is collapsing. Over the past decade, the number of people who pay for FX has declined to about 90 million. According to research firm MoffettNathanson, FX’s viewership has dropped 15% each of the past two years.
 

The main source of FX’s woes is competition from streaming services like Netflix. “When you look at multiples of what Netflix or Amazon are spending relative to a few years ago, you get dwarfed by the level of investment,” Landgraf said.

For years, FX licensed its reruns to Netflix, and Landgraf argued that the streaming company was using his programs to build an audience without giving the cable network enough credit. He asked Netflix to do a better job of conveying to subscribers that shows like “Sons of Anarchy” originally aired on FX and were then carried by the streaming service. Netflix saw little reason to do so.

In 2017, the network launched its own streaming service, FX+. But it was only available to people actively paying for a cable, satellite or internet TV bundle and lacked exclusive, original series. The service failed to attract a large following. Meanwhile, the number of Emmy nominations FX received fell every year from 2016 to 2019.

Disney’s acquisition of Fox changed everything, Landgraf said. He’s now working for an entertainment company that operates multiple TV and movie studios, as well as Marvel, Pixar, ESPN and Lucasfilm. 

“You look across the panoply of people they’ve put together who program all these different brands, it’s the biggest murderers’ row of film and TV programmers ever assembled in the history of media,” Landgraf said. “It’s nutty how incredibly good they are.”

Landgraf describes FX as a tiny province within this larger corporate behemoth. He still won’t be making as many shows as Netflix, or HBO for that matter. But FX will be increasing its output.

In 2020, FX will release at least 21 shows, its most ever. The amount of new programming will increase from there.  Most of the new shows will be scripted dramas and comedies. But the network’s slate will also include a growing number of unscripted programs. Last week, FX announced it would produce its first feature-length documentary, “AKA Jane Roe,” delving into the U.S. Supreme Court’s historic ruling on abortion rights. 

After years of releasing shows on a cable network struggling to maintain eyeballs, Landgraf now gets to make them for a growing streaming service. Hulu passed 30 million subscribers last year and grew faster than Netflix in the U.S.

Disney’s three streaming services, Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+ collectively have more than 60 million subscribers.

“FX on Hulu,” will stand out, Landgraf said, even at a time when streaming TV consumers face an increasingly bewildering set of choices.

“I don’t see how all these streaming services can work,” he said. “I don’t have any doubt that one of most successful companies will be the Walt Disney Company.”

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Felix Gillette at fgillette@bloomberg.net, Nick Turner

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