Nabbing the rights to Seinfeld – alongside ER and Walter Presents – means Channel 4’s streaming platform is now a powerhouse. Netflix, be very afraid
Seinfeld may have ended 22 years ago, but the
comedy show is still remarkably big business. In 2014, Hulu paid $130m for exclusive streaming rights to the show. Then, last year, shocked by the sudden loss of
Friends and the US version of The Office,
Netflix poached it in an eye-watering five-year deal worth half a billion dollars. The sums that people will pay for Seinfeld are astronomical. If you own the streaming rights to Seinfeld, it is a demonstration to the world that you are a powerhouse. It means you are unstoppable.
I am telling you this because soon the
British home of Seinfeld will be All 4, of all places. The first three seasons are scheduled to drop this Friday, with the remaining six becoming available weekly from then on. The world is filled to capacity with bigger, showier, richer streaming services all hurling bricks of money at anything that might nudge the needle of their market share a fraction of a millimetre. For a celebrated show such as Seinfeld to end up on All 4 is therefore massive. I have thought it for a while, but this cements it; in a quiet, low-key, very British way, All 4 is becoming the best streaming service we have.