Time Warner is home to FX

Slot opening, popular off-net shows trigger move

By JOHN DEMPSEY

CHICAGO -- News Corp.'s FX, which bills itself as the fastest-growing cable network in the U.S. during the past year, has finally landed a coveted slot on Time Warner of New York.

"Time Warner actually approached us," said Lindsay Gardner, executive VP of affiliate sales for the Fox Network Group, who had banged on the cable system's door for years without getting any results.

What caused the turnabout for TWC of NY, he said, was a) the opening of a slot on basic cable when the system decided to move one of its pay-per-view channels to digital, and b) the advent on FX this fall of exclusive cable rights to three high-visibility off-network hours, all distributed by Twentieth TV, FX's sister company: "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," "Ally McBeal" and "The Practice." Gardner made the announcement at a press conference at the National Cable Show here.

Peter Liguori, president of FX, said the network has grown by 18 million subscribers in the past year, putting it in 66.7 million homes. The TWC of N.Y. deal, which kicks in on Sept. 5, will added an additional 1.1 million subscribers to the total.

In a separate announcement, Gardner said the Fox-owned National Geographic Channel has signed a deal for carriage on a number of cable systems owned by Comcast Corp. That contract gives Nat Geo a subscriber commitment that will reach 35 million homes by 2004.

Nat Geo still doesn't have any deals with Time Warner Cable, Cox Cable, EchoStar, and Cablevision Systems, all top-10 companies, but Gardner said he's working on it.

Another cable sibling, the Fox News Channel, claimed that it has inched above its rival MSNBC by going on the air in New Orleans with Cox Cable. That pickup put FNC in 67 million homes. FNC also did a deal with Cable One, another multi-system cable operator, which will add 750,000 subscribers over the next three years.