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I just noticed that the new 10th revival season of The X-Files will be broadcast on German free TV beginning February 8th 2016, two weeks after its US premiere on Junuary 24th.

This seems an incredibly short timeframe for German TV standards. While it certainly is a major pop-culturally anticipated TV event and the ProSiebenSat1 Media SE is quite a strong player in private TV business, it usually takes about a year or at least half a year for a US shows to air on German free TV. I can't imagine any precedent below this time, even for highly anticipated blockbuster shows.

Is there any background information about this deal that explains this very short timeframe compared to the usual delay? Did the ProSiebenSat1 company need to negotiate some special deal for this to happen or were there any other hurdles involved? Since pay TV and streaming services can tend to get TV shows faster than free TV (as well as cinemas get movies much faster if not simultaneously), I'd assume there isn't usually a great deal of actual post-production work (like dubbing) involved after the show's premiere? Then the question's slightly broader core might come down to why TV shows normally take such a long delay to reach German free TV and why this was not the case for the X-Files revival. If it is due to the networks usually reserving premieres for their pay TV channels or associates, then the question would be why this wasn't done for such a high-rating-guaranteed show. Or is this really just down to waiting for word of mouth and looking how the show goes in its original market before deciding to pick it up, something that surely wasn't necessary for The X-Files?

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  • Just guessing: It's a well-hyped show. Perhaps they're just trying to be beat the online pirating of it?
    – DA.
    Commented Jan 15, 2016 at 22:27
  • @DA. Hmm, maybe. It would still be the first time this is done.
    – Napoleon Wilson
    Commented Jan 15, 2016 at 22:28

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Most likely due to the deal they struck with Fox in 2015:

In addition to the feature films in the Fox package, the ProSieben deal includes TV series, such as primetime drama hit Empire and crime comedy Backstrom. For the first time, animated features from DreamWorks Animation will be included in the ProSieben agreement, giving the German group rights for such films as Rio 2 and How to Train Your Dragon 2.

In a bid to make premieres of its U.S. films and series truly exclusive, ProSieben's deal with Fox also covers exclusive basic pay TV licenses. "They are going out first on our channels — nowhere else," said Boss.

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  • "They are going out first on our channels — nowhere else," - Curiously, the german dubbed premiere will actually be 4 days earlier, on Austria's "ORF". - On "ProSieben Austria" you'll have to wait until February 8th (the same as Germany).
    – Oliver_C
    Commented Jan 16, 2016 at 1:20

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