FX to Shut Down FX+ Subscription Service

The ad-free streaming service launched as a pay-TV add-on in 2017.


FX's ad-free streaming service FX+ is shutting down.


A message on the FX+ website Friday said that the service will stop working Aug. 21, directing visitors to watch FX shows on its channels, on FXNetworks.com or on the FXNow app.


FX+ launched in 2017 as a streaming add-on for Comcast pay-TV subscribers, and was eventually made available to pay-TV subscribers who had access to FX. So if you paid for cable, you could then pay an additional $6 per month to stream FX shows ad-free in the FX+ app. AMC has a similar service called AMC Premiere.


"We deeply appreciate every fan of FX original series who subscribed to our service, and we are more optimistic and excited than ever about FX’s future as a key brand supporting the strategic priorities of The Walt Disney Company," read an FX statement on Friday.


With FX now owned by Disney and expected to become a major content supplier for Hulu, the market need for the niche streaming offering apparently wasn't there. It is not clear how many subscribers the service had.


“I think the possibilities of a platform like Hulu are much more exciting to us in the long run than trying to scale up a stand-alone version,” FX CEO John Landgraf told reporters at an upfront press breakfast in May. "That FX programming will now be on a quite widely distributed streaming system with an ad-free option, it really expands the dimensions and what we can do."