How do rights work with The Simpsons, Sky have pay TV while C4 have FTA rights? I see The Simpsons is repeated on C4 as well as 4seven but not on any other C4 digital channel. Why is it not on E4? You'd think theyd stick repeats on E4 when they have the rights to it and use it as filler like they use TBBT? Sky1s schedule is full with The Simpsons repeats
E4 HD isn't free to air, and 4Seven isn't in HD on Sky, it may be stipulated in the rights that they can't show them in HD on satellite, other than on Channel 4.
4 Seven has show Simpsons before. It was only as recently as last year they used to air a marathon of them on there on Saturday nights which they have now stopped doing.
Last edited by Neil Jones on 26 February 2019 7:32pm
4 Seven has show Simpsons before. It was only as recently as last year they used to air a marathon of them on there on Saturday nights which they have now stopped doing.
They started showing them on Saturday afternoons for a while, as late as a few weeks ago but they’ve stopped again.
I’d like to think it’s probably as part of a new deal which includes it as a catch up option. Programmes like Frasier and Everybody Loves Raymond have appeared on 4Seven in the last few months also.
Its surprising actually the Simpsons hasn't ended up on Catch Up in some form either through Sky or All4 by now. 4Seven is probably the closest equivalent to that, but the animated shows the studios seem to be reluctant to provide them catch-up for some reason - Family Guy is on the ITV Hub now but the BBC wouldn't or couldn't get iPlayer rights for it when FG was on BBC Three. It doesn't even show up on the Fox catch-up section on Sky On-Demand either. The only other exception seems to be South Park which is on Comedy Central catch-up.
They probably want to keep it off catch up to give people a reason to still fork out for the DVDs (the aformentioned awful psuedo-HD versions are also another encouragement to buy them).