THEORY: Fox Family to become Toonami (EVERYONE PLEASE READ)

[Vin]

The following is just a theory, not proven FACT:

Recently, News Corp and Saban have put Fox Family up for sale. What most people did not know is that Fox Family Worldwide, Inc. (FFW) is for sale.

Fox Family Worldwide includes 81-million-subscriber Fox Family Channel, Fox Kids Network, which distributes children's programming in the U.S., and Fox Kids International, which has cable and satellite channels in almost 50 countries, as well as it's extensive library of shows like Digimon and Power Rangers.

Entertainment companies such as Viacom, Disney, NBC, USA Networks and AOL Time Warner were said to be interested. Viacom was said to the most interested. However, Viacom Inc. president and chief operating officer Mel Karmazin said that his company was in fact, not interested because FFW is not profitable and because they already own Nickelodeon. USA Networks will most likely not buy FFW, and I believe that NBC won't either. Disney, let's hope, doesn't either. It's bad enough we have to sit through the Disney Channel, as true disgrace to the Walt Disney name. Disney will most likely drop out due to the high price that News Corp and Saban are selling it for.


An AOLTW-FFW deal seems most realistic though. Besides shows such as Digimon and Power Rangers, they will also gain shows like X-Men, Spiderman, etc, as well as, Escaflowne and Slayers, many of which would appeal to the Toonami demographic.

Essentially, if AOLTW buys FFW, Fox Family Channel could become a Toonami network. Old Toonami shows, as well as old Fox Kids shows, and new ones as well, could form a Toonami network with the extensive library that it contains.

81 million subscribers? That's more than Cartoon Network has.

Imagine the possibilities...

AOLTW is all about making money. AOLTW knows that shows like Power Rangers, Digimon, etc., still make money and we know AOL loves $$$$$$.

Call me crazy but I feel that an AOL-FFW deal is imminent. I for one am all for it.

Could Betty Cohen possibly be involved somehow? She just left Cartoon Network to develop some new multi-platform thing that would target young adults and teens. Suspicious? You bet I am.

Let's just pray that AOLTW does buy FFW, because we may finally get our Toonami network out of it.

[I.R Joey]

I'll admit that the very words in the title scared me. Hech it terrified me. However, the concept of the shows Toonami let fall away plus others such as X-Men, and Spidey is cool. Hopefully they air the uncut Escaflowne.

[James Harvey]

That sounds like the most plausible idea, and I actually would like that. Why? Becuase I also get Fox Family -- without the sattellite dish! This would be real convenient. It'd be a nice fate for the channel, which pretty much currently sux.

[Psycho Fox]

In my opinon AOL-TW is too big already and they don't know how to properly use the resorces they already have at hand. Having Fox Family turn into Toonami channel would be neat unfortunately I don't have faith in AOL-TW and fear the channel will be put to waste.

[The Mad Hatter]

Fox Family becoming a Toonami channel? Somehow I doubt it. Popular as it is, adventure cartoons an anime are still seen as niche. A big niche, but a niche nonetheless. I'd love to see it happen, but with that big a subscriber base I imagine that whoever buys it will probably do something with it with wider appeal, to use exec-think.

Also... do we really, REALLY want the mammoth beast that is AOL-Time Warner to get any bigger?

[Nftnat]

I see other possibilities here. As y'all know I'm a Warner loyalist; that is, the LTs-MMs thru the Silver Age. Let's see, CN, KWB, Boomerang, now Fox Family or whatever it might be renamed. In all of this there must be room to put more of the Warner stuff. It seems the top 3 Silver Age shows will be on Nick for the immediate future, but a few years down the road, who knows? FF could turn into the Toonami channel, & CN might transfer some to most of their current anime stuff there; that might result in room for, say, Sylvester & Tweety, or Histeria, maybe a return of Road Rovers, who knows. I've had an idea that one day there might be @ least 4 cartoon channels from TW, not counting KWB which is part of the WB network: Boomerang for the HB stuff, Toonami for anime, Toon TV for WB, & CN as an umbrella where the best of each would be. Maybe FF will turn into Toonami, or Toon TV, or, well, who knows? If Toonami does become its own channel, tho, they'd still need to pull more programming from the shelves --- anime, quasi-anime, proto-anime, etc. There's shows that fit @ least 1 one of those categories which I wouldn't mind seeing again --- Transformers, GIJoe, Voltron, RoboTech, Star Blazers, maybe I'd finally see Battle of the Planets. Eh, anyway, disregard all of the above, just rambling.

[Vin]

In this current day and age, who knows what will happen? I, for one, do what an AOLTW-FF deal to go down because of my theory. The library of Fox Kids series, as well as, a network which has 81 million subscribers, making it available to almost everyone who has cable seems like it would attrack the attention of AOLTW. I'm just hoping that Disney doesn't get it's hands on it.

[don Jaime]

Nah, that ain't gonna happen, at least not with Fox Family. Thought the Christian Broadcasting Network may be history, the centerpiece of its descendant is still The 700 Club. I'm betting the conditions of the sale of CBN pretty much guarantee that Pat Robertson will have his old outlet till the day the Lord calls him home instead of Oral Roberts.

A Toonami Channel would be great, but it's a minimum of five years away. Toon Disney isn't making a whole lot of headway and even CN hasn't penetrated everywhere; much of the board still hasn't seen Dexter. If Mickey and Scooby-Doo have a tough row to hoe, Son Goku and Akira are gonna need a brushhog.

I'll keep my fingers crossed, though.