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The Walking Dead to launch FX channel

Cult zombie series The Walking Dead will finally air in Australia when FX launches ad-free on Pay TV in late February.

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New Pay TV channel FX will launch on Sunday February 26 on Foxtel.

The entertainment channel, from Fox International Channels, will finally see the launch of long-awaited zombie series The Walking Dead.

Seasons one and two of will premiere back-to-back, with double, ad-free episodes from 8:30pm AEDT Tuesday February 28 with a sneak peek of the feature length pilot airing on Sunday February 26 at 8:30pm AEDT.

TV Tonight readers have voted The Walking Dead the “International TV show we need to see on Aussie TV” for two years in a row.

FX will also roll-out Jason Priestley’s comedy Call Me Fitz, Timothy Olyphant’s drama series Justified and epic western Hell On Wheels.

Karin Simoncini, Managing Director of FOX International Channels Australia said, “We are 100 percent committed to delivering premium quality entertainment to Australian viewers on FX. The star calibre and award winning values in all our shows are impeccable, especially with the addition of Jason Priestley and Timothy Olyphant to our line-up.

“We’re very excited to be unveiling a line-up of new series that have enjoyed huge ratings success around the world and much-deserved critical accolades. Australian viewers will really be able to immerse themselves in the characters and stories across FX’ entire programming slate.

FX has previously promised to screen the latest shows to air on the same day and date as the USA.

FX was previously available on Foxtel prior to a rebranding as W Channel.

The HD channel will be available on subscription television channel 123 on Foxtel. Austar viewers are advised to “stay tuned for more details.”

CALL ME FITZ
Jason Priestley stars as Richard “Fitz” Fitzpatrick In “Call Me Fitz”. Fitz is a handsome, morally bankrupt used-car salesman whose consequence-free life is complicated by the arrival of do-gooder Larry (Ernie Grunwald), another salesman who claims he is Fitz’s conscience. “Call Me Fitz” is a twisted family dramedy that poses the question: can a man change? More importantly, when he’s having this much fun, do we really want him to? This is Jason Priestley as you’ve never seen him before. The first two seasons of “Call Me Fitz”, at 13 episodes each, will air every Wednesday at 9:30pm AEDT premiering February 29.

JUSTIFIED
Timothy Olyphant stars in the lead role of US Marshal Raylan Givens. Givens is a modern day 19th century-style lawman, enforcing his brand of justice in a way that puts a target on his back with criminals and places him at odds with his bosses in the Marshal service. When his superiors question if a killing in Miami was justified, he is sent back to his hillbilly hometown of Harlan, Kentucky. Here, he must not only face the demons of his past but also distrustful superiors and hostile locals as he attempts to hand out justice though the barrel of a gun. The first two seasons of Justified, at 13 episodes each, will air from February 27 every Monday at 8:30pm AEDT, preparing Australian viewers for the premiere of the third season around the same time it debuts in the US.

THE WALKING DEAD
Based on the graphic novels of the same name, The Walking Dead is an epic, survival adventure series from the director of The Shawshank Redemption and the producer of The Terminator and Aliens. After waking from a coma in an abandoned hospital, police officer Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) finds the world he knew gone – ravaged by a zombie epidemic of apocalyptic proportions. Nearby, on the outskirts of Atlanta, a small encampment struggles to survive as ‘the dead’ stalk them at every turn. Can Rick and the others hold onto their humanity as they fight to live in this terrifying new world? Amidst dire conditions and personal rivalries, will they ultimately survive one another?

HELL ON WHEELS
Set against the backdrop of post-Civil War America, Hell On Wheels stars Anson Mount as Cullen Bohannon, a former Confederate soldier bent on exacting revenge on the corrupt Union soldiers who raped and killed his wife. His journey takes him west to Hell on Wheels, a dangerous, raucous, lawless melting pot of a town that travels with and services the construction of the first transcontinental railroad, an engineering feat unprecedented for its time. Hell On Wheels premieres Sunday February 26 at 10:00pm AEDT, with new episodes every Monday at 9:30pm AEDT from February 27. The series has been renewed for a second season and is currently in pre-production.

40 Responses

  2. @ Knowfirst – read my entire post. I said that if Foxtel done like Austar and placed the FTA channels >100 (e.g. Nine on 009, Seven on 007, etc.) then channels 107 and 109 would have been free for more entertainment channels. They would also be better doing like DirecTV in the U.S. rather than Sky in the U.K., and place the SD and HD channels on the same EPG number and have a button on the remote to switch between the two instead of wasting EPG space. Obviously with the amount of HD channels currently available it isn’t worth the money to make new remotes and STB’s, but once Australia reaches the amount of the U.K. it will be something to think about when designing the IQ4.

  4. From: facebook.com/fxtvau
    FX will be on the Basic Tier/Starter Pack, so FX free for every FOXTEL subscriber, and will also be in High Definition for HD subscribers.

  5. The channels/services denied to regional viewers because of the Austar monopoly just gets bigger and bigger:

    *A&E / A&E HD (from 16 February 2012)
    *FX / FX HD (from 26 February 2012)
    *MTV Hits
    *MTV Live / MTV Live HD
    *CNBC Australia
    *Discovery HD
    *Nat Geo HD
    *Nat Geo Wild HD
    *Sky News Local
    *3D CHANNEL
    *BOX OFFICE HD
    *ON DEMAND via IPTV
    *Android phone app (still waiting…)

    If they (Austar) can manage to launch one of the channels next month (FOX Footy), then there is no excuse why they can’t launch the others. The pending takeover is no excuse.

  7. Some great shows – but I have one very important question to ask: will there be embedded ads in these shows?

    If so, I’m not interested and will look elsewhere.

  9. To all those Austar subscribers, I am one aswell but know it is good business sense not to waste money on new channels/services when they are potentially going to be brought and a cent wont have to be wasted on adding the channels/services to Austar subscribers. It is just a matter of either Foxtel taking over and launching it, or Austar keeping their company and playing catch up.
    I also am wondering what is to happen to Fashion TV. I read this article when I got up this morning and only just clicked that 123 is already taken. If Foxtel done like Austar (and this is the only topic I think Austar are bettering Foxtel) and have the FTA channels on <100 EPG numbers then there is plenty of space for new channels (e.g. FX could have been placed on 107 or 109 to compliment FOX8).

  11. This was the best new show of 2010. How has it taken so long for it to air on tv here? Not that it affects me. I’m counting down for the new eps to return Feb 12th.

  12. If you haven’t seen ‘The Walking Dead’, book it in your calendar now. I have watched all episodes courtesy of my US iTunes account and it is some of the best tv I have seen in years. Not to be missed!

  15. How long will Austar subscribers have to wait for this? 6 months? A year?

    Wish the ACCC would hurry up and approve Foxtel’s takeover of Austar. Country & Regional areas receive a 2nd rate pay tv service. Austar drag their heels everytime a new channel is launching and their HD service is a joke.

  19. Now hopefully Fetch Tv are able to secure access to this channel. Would be the general entertainment channel that’s lacking so far from their suite of channels.

  22. Hell on Wheels is a great show. I recommend it to people who will have FX and haven’t already seen it. Never heard of Anson Mount before this show but he is good as the lead actor.

  25. So Austar viewers are likely to miss the already 12 month late premiere of “The Walking Dead”…. And they wonder why Australians are the kings of piracy.

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