FX Networks' current programming and production executive vice-president Jonathan Frank says he's more than happy to have their content alongside HBO and Showtime's on Sky TV's SoHo channel.

The US network behind shows like American Horror Story, Sons of Anarchy, Fargo and The Americans have no desire to be the next Netflix.

That's the view of FX's current programming and production executive vice-president Jonathan Frank.

In New Zealand recently to oversee production of rural coming-of-age drama Breckman Rodeo, Frank told Stuff they have far loftier goals.

"With people being inundated with marketing for a million different shows, you've not only got to have an idea that's big enough, bold enough to cut through the clutter, but you've got to focus on quality.

JASON OXENHAM/PHOTOTEK.CO.NZ FX's Jonathan Frank says the network would never have just done a TV version of What We Do in the Shadows if it didn't come from its creators.

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FX What We Do in the Shadows is scheduled to debut on Sky TV's SoHo channel in 2019.

"Platforms like Netflix create many shows, far more than we have, but we believe the percentage of high-quality shows they have on the air is far lower than ours. It seems to me they have an approach of shock and awe. They seem perfectly willing to have 80 shows that I don't think are worth anyone's time of day if that means they also have 20 amazing shows.

"When you are expecting people to give their valuable time to a show you are making – to say, 'watch all of these and be happy with 20 per cent of them' doesn't seem like a method that is sustainable to me. I know anecdotally I've heard people say they've found the volume on Netflix to be overwhelming and they don't feel there's a connective effort to have a distinct brand that speaks to an individual.

Frank said FX's goal was "every one of our shows to be fantastic".

"More and more, what we focus on is telling engaging stories about the human condition that people will innately have a connection to. We have shows of wildly differing tones, everything from [Zach Galifianakis comedy] Baskets to American Horror Story, but whether they tell a silly, broad version or a dark, brooding version, the intention is to connect with the same visceral internal mechanism that we as humans all have."

FX's Jonathan Frank has been in New Zealand overseeing production of rural coming-of-age drama Breckman Rodeo.

He also dismissed Netflix as "trying to be everything to everybody".

"We want our audience to be immensely passionate about the shows we make, rather than create a whole bunch of stuff that a whole bunch of people sort of like."

Frank was also at pains to point out that FX are in the business of developing talent, rather than just formats and ideas.

"People aren't attracted to ideas – I think people are attracted to [a] point-of-view and that comes from the creators themselves."

Which is precisely why his company decided to greenlight a What We Do in the Shadows TV series with Kiwis Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi.

"They are both immensely talented. We've all been huge fans of all of their work for as long as I can remember. I am a massive Flight of Conchords nerd and have spent way too many hours rewatching their specials over and over and over again. Taika as a director is a visionary, and he's amazing and he melds the silly with the real in a way that few other directors have been able to do such a distinct voice.

"Ultimately that is what attracted us to those guys – the distinctiveness of their comedy and the fact that they can be quite silly, but with a foundation of heart underneath. They create characters that you can love and relate to and find endearing."

FX The TV series of What We Do in the Shadows is set in and around New York's Staten Island.

Frank said that they would never have just done a TV version of Shadows if it didn't come from its creators.

"Making a TV show with these guys is what we're excited about. We've seen the pilot, seen all the scripts and they are in production now and I have to say I couldn't be more excited about it – it's super, super funny. They've Americanised it in a way where it will work for an American audience, but it's not Americanised in the strangeness of the word. All the cast are British, it's not toned down."

Frank also admitted to being a fan of Sky TV's SoHo channel, which places his network's content alongside programmes from HBO and Showtime.

"HBO is the brand we most frequently compare ourselves to. You can tell, whether you like an HBO show or not, that a lot of thought and care has gone into crafting each and everyone of them. And I have a similar feeling towards Showtime and the shows that they make."

The Americans is one of many globally successful shows created over the past few years by FX.

Always on the lookout for innovations and something new, Frank said, around seven months ago, FX began to invest in a documentary strand.

"It's a medium that, thanks to HBO and Netflix, has really exploded in the last five years. We thought we were doing ourselves a disservice by not being in that specific form of storytelling and creating a home for those artists to come and share the subjects they were passionate about."

Describing it as a fun and really rewarding experience so far, Frank said they currently have four of five of those series in various stages of production.

When it comes to other upcoming highlights, he cited an eight-part Silicon Valley-set murder mystery series created by Annihilation's Alex Garland, a remake of classic 1980 mini-series Shogun and the lavish drama Fosse/Verdon, which takes a look at the relationship between one of Broadway's most influential choreographers and one of its greatest dancers.

"Sam Rockwell signed on just a week after winning his Academy Award [for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri] and it also stars Michelle Williams and has Lin-Manuel Miranda as an executive producer."