Would you welcome an “all The Simpsons, all the time” channel into your life? Whatever your reaction, it may be time to make room for such a venture, provided the guys at Fox can demonstrate how much extra revenue such a creation could generate.
Because The Simpsons is the longest-running scripted sitcom, animated or otherwise, of all time, the possesses an huge library of content, and apparently, the desire of the Fox suits goes beyond simple syndication. Instead, when discussing ways to further monetize The Simpsons and its content, the idea of an “All Simpsons” channel began to take shape.
Over at SlashFilm.com (via Slice of SciFi), the details of such a venture were discussed by Fox COO Chase Carey at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch Media Communications & Entertainment Conference (and that’s a mouthful), and while the idea is definitely in the gestation stage, there does appear to be some interest. Obviously, Fox’s interest comes from making more money off of their Simpsons content, and considering the show’s popularity, the idea should be at least intriguing for consumers, provided they want nothing but Homer choking Bart playing on their television screens on a continual loop.
Of course, The Simpsons are much more than that, which is obvious by the amount of years it has been on the air. For those who may be unaware, when the Fall season kicks off on Fox, The Simpsons will be entering their 23rd year of original content.
Like SlashFilm points out, apparently, there’s only so much money to be made off of syndication, DVD sales and Simpsons-related collectibles, and so, the idea for such an “all Simpsons” channel, especially when you have 22-plus years of content, does make sense, especially if there’s a demand for advertising slots. SlashFilm continues:
If this does happen, however, it wouldn’t be for several years. First of all, the show is still on the air for Fox and doing well. Plus, it’s wrapped up in long term syndication deals. Fox would have to let all the show’s current contracts expire before they could go ahead and program an entire channel without huge legal ramifications.
Which means, if the Simpsons channel did happen, all those syndicated showings would cease to exist. This indicates the syndication revenue is not as lucrative as Fox expected, or it means Fox realizes it could make more off of cable subscriptions and advertising on a channel dedicated to showing nothing but The Simpsons.
With that in mind, is an “all Simpsons” channel something you would support, or is this just overkill by a company trying to ring every last dollar they can out of Homie and the gang? With all of this in mind, this seems like a perfect place to revisit the intro Banksy made for The Simpsons.
The idea of an “all Simpsons” channel makes Banksy’s idea hit a little closer to home.