‘Seinfeld’ goes to Hulu in exclusive streaming deal

For well over a year now, the question about “Seinfeld’s” eventual streaming home was one on the minds of many out there, and ultimately for good reason. This was a series that was a smash hit on NBC, remains a monster in syndication, and sold countless DVDs over the years. It is a show who many believe is one of the greatest comedies of all time.

When you consider all of this coupled with waiting for a bidding war over rights to its episodes it is no surprise to learn that Hulu is paying a pretty penny in order to provide the entire catalog of episodes to its Hulu Plus subscribers. While there is no official figure released, Deadline reports that studio Sony Pictures TV was looking for more than $700,000 for each episode; that is significantly higher than what “Friends” received when it reached its own agreement to go onto Netflix.

Netflix had already passed on getting into a battle here, probably just because they realized that they already have a robust library of great shows and really do not need anything else to go along with it. Amazon and Yahoo Screen were the other big suitors.

To us, we feel like Amazon was probably the home that would have benefited from this the most, largely because the appeal of Hulu here is somewhat mixed. While you get the convenience of episodes anywhere, you also get the annoyance of commercials interrupting them. For an in-season show (which you would not be able to get on another streaming provider), this is certainly understandable. It’s a little different when you’re talking about something that aired its last episode back in 1998. At that point, why not just by the DVDs and watch something else on your phone or tablet?

Anyway, that is our two cents, and we’ve love to hear yours in the comments.