Seven West Media has struck a deal with Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox to secure the free-to-air broadcast rights for US television shows The Simpsons and MASH.
The move comes after Ten failed to win over Fox late last year in its bid to hold onto The Simpsons, which had run on the now CBS-owned network for the past 25 years.
In a statement to B&T, Seven’s director of network programming, Angus Ross, said: “We have cherry-picked from the Fox library a number of iconic shows, including The Simpsons and MASH, that are proven and consistent free-to-air performers.”
“Seven has no appetite for output agreements and prefers to look for programming gaps in the marketplace and the smart acquisitions to fill them.”
Seven did not confirm the other shows it had snapped up, but it’s being speculated that Modern Family – which Ten also had the rights to – is among them.
