The ongoing dispute could result in Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles being aired sooner than expected, boosting Virgin 1’s New Year schedule.
Acquired programming for the new channel includes blockbuster US dramas The Riches and Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, which is currently in production for its first season, and debuts on 13 January.
Webb said Fox has decided that, because of the uncertainty about the Writers Guild of America strike, the channel will not be showing the next season of 24 until it can guarantee that it can be broadcast in its entirety (given the nature of the storylines). Terminator is therefore being brought forward to replace it later on in January.
Webb said: “Terminator will ignite our schedule. We are watching the writers’ strike with interest. We will launch it quickly after the US. That is the biggy for us.
Other series hit by the strike include Lost, which airs on ABC in the US and Sky One in the UK. Sky will be airing eight episodes of the new season of Lost, half of the original season order within a week of their US transmission from next February.
A Sky spokesman said: “There's a cliff-hanger ending, so it'll be a mini-season. We're looking at alternative programming for the remaining slots now.”
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