How Impeachment: American Crime Story became an FX exclusive unavailable to Hulu subscribers

The Ringer

The idea for FX on Hulu -- making FX shows available on a massive streaming platform -- is bogged down by preexisting deals. "Putting FX in a single, convenient place isn’t so simple," says Alison Herman. "Thanks to preexisting rights deals, for example, The Americans—one of the most acclaimed shows in FX history—isn’t on Hulu at all, but instead Amazon Prime. Meanwhile, American Crime Story kicked off in 2016, which is basically the Pleistocene in streaming terms. As such, it’s still subject to an agreement that made sense at the time: a pact with Netflix to host complete seasons after their initial run. In a more vertically integrated age, what was once a win-win now amounts to ceding ground to a competitor. In a less practical, more existential sense, the hiccups with FX, Hulu, and FX on Hulu speak to some of the tensions at the core of streaming’s expansion. Services like Netflix or Amazon have been versed in digital distribution for well over a decade. But as streaming expands beyond first movers and as old media companies like Disney, WarnerMedia, and ViacomCBS get into the game, potential conflicts come into play. Rather than a simple binary between streaming companies and linear broadcasters, many conglomerates are now both at the same time. Disney, for example, owns channels like ABC and FX and services like Hulu and Disney+, just as ViacomCBS owns both CBS and Paramount+. Ideally, these relationships can actualize hallowed buzzwords like synergy. But when they aren’t carefully managed, these components can be in competition, not working in concert. This difficult balancing act is at the root of some of the loudest clashes in entertainment, especially as companies face heavy pressure from investors to prioritize streaming over everything else."