‘Modern Family’ Sets Full-Series Streaming Run On Both Peacock And Hulu
Modern Family, which wrapped its highly decorated, 11-season broadcast TV run last year, is embarking on a significant new streaming chapter via a shared deal with Peacock and Hulu.
Starting February 3, all 250 episodes of the sitcom will be available on both services after years of only having a limited batch of episodes on Hulu. The go-go streaming market remains in effect, with sources indicating a multi-year acquisition price well into nine figures, consistent with healthy rates for recent half-hours like Friends, The Office and Seinfeld. Prices have been driven higher by a handful of new billion-dollar players entering the fray over the past year.
NBCUniversal’s Peacock, which launched in mid-2020, appears to have benefited from an expansive rights deal reached in 2010 that put syndicated episodes on USA Network, according to people familiar with the talks. Even though that long-term agreement was reached at the dawn of streaming, it included all rights, which enabled Peacock to keep its place at the table.
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The deals were negotiated separately by the streaming platforms with Disney Media and Entertainment Distribution. A further wrinkle of note in a deal labeled “unprecedented” by the companies is the corporate ownership of Hulu, which was once controlled equally by three media companies: Disney, NBCU parent Comcast and 21st Century Fox. When Disney bought most of Fox in 2019, it also acquired Comcast’s Hulu stake.
“In the end, we decided that this was the best model for all of us,” Val Boreland, head of acquisitions for NBCU Television and Streaming, told Deadline in an interview. She declined to address financial terms.
At launch, Boreland said, the first 12 episode-season of Modern Family will be available on Peacock. The remaining 10 seasons will be on Peacock Premium, which is $5 a month for most customers. Comcast has said Peacock has attracted 26 million users to date, though the company has not broken out numbers for the premium tier.
The strategy follows Peacock’s heavily promoted debut of The Office earlier this month after a blockbuster stretch of years on Netflix. “Once you make such a splash, everything that comes after it now has to come after it and follow and try to live up to that,” Boreland said. “The bar has been set by The Office.”
USA’s relationship with Modern Family is an advantage with the Peacock bow because there is “a lot of marketing work and stunting work in the last years that will be very helpful to Peacock,” Boreland said.
“Thanks to its sharp writing and an eccentric but exceedingly likable cast of characters, Modern Family ushered in the return of the family sitcom and offered viewers a unique and refreshing portrayal of family life,” Hulu VP of content partnerships Brian Henderson said in the official announcement. “We were fortunate to bring this beloved series to Hulu audiences next-day during its celebrated run, and now we’re excited to offer every episode so new fans can meet the Pritchetts, Dunphys and Tuckers and old friends can visit them again.”
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