SVOD battle underway for Seinfeld rights

Various SVOD and digital platforms are battling for rights to iconic US comedy Seinfeld, although the largest streaming outfit, Netflix, has ruled itself out, according to various reports.

The Wall Street Journal said that Hulu, Amazon Prime Instant Video and Yahoo are all weighing a move for Seinfeld with the asking price about US$500,000 an episode and the total deal worth up to US$100 million. A deal is expected within weeks.

Sony Pictures Television sells the series, which was produced by Warner Bros.-owned Castle Rock Entertainment for NBC. It ran for nine seasons in the US, finishing in 1998.

The show’s creator, Jerry Seinfeld, said last year that Netflix was in talks to buy the series, but the SVOD service has now reportedly passed. It did make a big-budget comedy acquisition with Friends, which it launched this year.

Late last year Canadian SVOD player Shomi took exclusive local rights to Seinfeld.

Sony does put out some episode of Seinfeld its free digital platform Crackle.