No Simpsons marathon for us
The Simpsons are having a party — but Canadians aren’t invited.
After more than 550 episodes and 25 years on TV, Matt Groening’s animated sitcom is the longest-running scripted program in TV history, having earned 26 Emmys.
In what Fox International Television president Marion G. Edwards calls “perhaps the largest syndication deal ever having been made for any television series in history,” U.S.-based FX Networks has outbid cable rivals for exclusive rights to the series. The deal makes specialty channel FXX the exclusive U.S. cable home for the series.
Stations around the world will continue to air new episodes, including Global TV in Canada. But FXX now becomes the exclusive U.S. cable home for the entire back catalogue.
To celebrate, FXX will air a marathon of the full 25-season run of all Simpsons episodes and The Simpsons Movie, in chronological order, to begin Aug. 21 and air 24 hours a day through Sept. 1.
But since FXX is available only to U.S. subscribers, Canadians can’t watch the marathon.
Nor will Canadian fans have access to a new web- site and app dubbed Simpsons World, set to launch on Aug. 17, that will allow on-demand access to all episodes of the hit show and enable users to search through the life histories of Homer, Bart, Mr. Burns and other Springfield residents.
SimpsonsWorld.com and content available through FXNOW apps are set to debut in October. But Canadians won’t be able to access either the site or the app.