Channel 4’s All 4 Acquires U.K. Streaming Rights to ‘Seinfeld’

By Christopher Vourlias

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – Channel 4’s streaming service All 4 has acquired the U.K. rights to “Seinfeld” as part of a deal with Sony Pictures Television, the company announced on Tuesday. The streamer will host the iconic 1990s sitcom until Netflix takes the global rights in 2021.

All 4 will drop the first three seasons of “Seinfeld” on Feb. 7 and release one season every Friday over the next six weeks. By mid-March, all nine seasons and 180 episodes of the nostalgic hit will be available to All 4’s users for free.

More than 20 years after its last episode aired, “Seinfeld” continues to be one of TV’s most valuable properties. Hulu agreed to pay roughly $130 million for U.S. streaming rights in 2015. Netflix’s five-year pact is believed to have cost the Los Gatos-based streamer an estimated $500 million.

Until early last year, Amazon Prime was the U.K. home of the hit series about a standup comic and his quirky cast of friends, starring Jerry Seinfeld, Michael Richards, Jason Alexander and Julia Louis-Dreyfus. Amazon users in the U.K. now have to pay for individual episodes or seasons.

“In making it available for free, we hope to bring a whole new audience to a show that has already earned an enduring and loyal fanbase,” said Charlie Palmer, All 4’s managing editor.