FXM Retro as an afterthought

The old Fox Movie Channel went to a half-and-half format of old movies in the morning, commercial-free, and newer movies with commercial breaks in the afternoon and evening, at the beginning of 2012. I said back then that I would be surprised if the format lasted six months. Seven years and change in, and here we are with the same format, except with a name change to FXM Retro. I must say I'm still surprised.

I wonder what the bean counters over at Fox -- or did Disney get the cable channel? -- think about FXM Retro, if they think about it at all. There's relatively little thought put into the programming other than arbitrarily pulling movies out of the vault, as far as I can tell. And then there's tonight.

TCM made Fredric March its Star of the month this month, and tonight at 11:30 PM, they're running the 1935 version of Les Misérables, in which March plays Jean Valjean. I'll assume you know the plot, since that's not why I'm mentioning the film. It was released by 20th Century Pictures, just before they merged with the Fox Film Company to become Twentieth Century Fox. Back in the day the movie was distributed by United Artists, but Fox got 20th Century's library, as they've released this one to DVD and even distributed it on re-release in the 1940s.

TCM seems to be having slightly better luck getting access to Fox's movies to run on the channel, monetary constraints aside. But I specifically mention Les Misérables, because I notice that it's getting another airing... at 6:00 AM Thursday on FXM Retro. Which is why I bring it up. I just find it mildly odd that a relatively obscure property would show up on two completely unrelated channels in quick succession.