The Fuse, a 24-hour music channel, is instituting an anime hour on Friday nights starting on June 8th.  The Fuse, which is owned by entertainment giant Cablevision, is available in 45 million households thanks to its inclusion on numerous cable systems and both satellite systems. 

Each Friday night starting on June 8th Fuse will broadcast a new episode of two anime series starting at midnight (Eastern Time -- the Fuse is a 'single feed network' so the anime block will start at 11 pm Central, 10 pm Mountain, and 9 pm Pacfic).

All three of the anime acquired by the Fuse are distributed in North America by Geneon Entertainment.  Ergo Proxy, a 23-episode cyberpunk science fiction series directed by Shukou Murase and written by Dai Sato, airs first at midnight.  One of the most interesting and intellectually challenging anime series released here in the past year, Ergo Proxy is set in a future city where a series of murders committed by robots infected with the cognito virus.  Like Ghost in the Shell (and much of modern science fiction) Ergo Proxy examines what it means to be human and the nature of humanity itself.

The second anime series in the Fuse block is the 26-episode (actually 24 episodes and 2 OVAs) Tenjho Tenge, which is based on the manga by Oh Great!.  Tenjho Tenge is a sexy martial arts series with plenty of fan service that should please male fans.

On Friday November 16th Le Portrait de Petit Cossette, a series of 3 OVAs produced by Aniplex, will take over Ergo Proxy's spot.  Based on a 2-volume manga series by Asuka Katsura, Petit Cossette is psychological horror series with 'Gothic Lolita' overtones.

A spokesperson for the Fuse told ICv2 that the Friday night anime block, which will run through the rest of 2007, is an experiment, and if it does well, the network will continue or possibly even expand its anime offerings in 2008.