If you’ve been hoping for the entire run of Seinfeld to become available on Netflix, we’ve got bad news for you. That’s not happening. Not with Amazon Prime either. And fortunately, not on iTunes (which I’m saying because you’d likely have to pay per episode that way).
But the legendary sitcom will soon be available on a streaming service. During the upfront presentations in New York on Thursday (April 29), Hulu announced that it won the bidding for Seinfeld, making a huge deal with Sony Pictures Television for all 180 episodes of the series. Viewers can begin watching the show on Hulu in June.
According to Variety, the deal with Hulu could be for as much as $875,000 per episode. However, The Wall Street Journal reports that the terms are closer to $750,000 per show. Regardless, that results in a major payday for Sony Pictures TV, Castle Rock Entertainment and everyone else who has a piece of the series, including Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David. Hulu’s licensing deal is believed to run five years.
For someone who just experienced a significant financial windfall, Seinfeld lamented the effect digital media and mobile capability has had on the culture. Such innovations certainly would have made Seinfeld a much different show.
“I think all the media and social and digital capability makes the world a more annoying place,” Seinfeld said at the upfronts, promoting Crackle.com (owned by Sony) and his online series, Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee. “What reason would Kramer ever have to come in? You lose all those entrances, he could just text me. The whole show goes in the toilet right there.”
Well, it’s a good thing the show was on the air during the 90s then.
