Netflix and NBC Universal have announced an agreement to stream prior season cable and broadcast TV series to Netflix subscribers. The service is available by subscription with pricing starting at $8.99 (€6.66) a month.
The announcement follows a comment by departing NBC Universal CEO Jeff Zucker, who told Reuters that the company is not likely to offer its programmes for digital rental on Apple’s iTunes TV rentals service, arguing they are priced too low at 99 cents. “We do not think 99 cents is the right price point for our content. … We thought it would devalue our content,” he said.
The deal includes episodes from every season of NBC’s comedy franchise Saturday Night Live, including day-after broadcast of the upcoming 2010, 2011 and 2012 seasons plus hundreds of episodes from the first 35 years of SNL.
Every episode from the last season of 30 Rock, The Office and Law & Order: SVU, as well as earlier seasons of those shows renewed for streaming from Netflix under the current deal. All prior seasons – and eventually next year’s final season – of Friday Night Lights.
From cable networks, all prior seasons of USA Network hits Psych, In Plain Sight and Monk. More than 75 prior season episodes of Syfy’s Battlestar Galactica, as well as prior seasons of the series’ Destination Truth and Eureka.