Netflix reaches exclusive deal for Arrested Development in Canada

Netflix Inc. will distribute the new, fourth season of comedy Arrested Development in Canada, the company said Monday. In a release, Netflix said the new season of the program, which went off the air in 2006, is being produced by Twentieth Century Fox Television and Imagine Television. The show's previous three seasons are now exclusively available on Netflix, the release said. “With the excitement surrounding the return of Arrested Development, we are thrilled to premiere the new season of the show in Canada at the same time as we launch it in the U.S.,” Ted Sarandos, chief content officer at Netflix, said in a statement. Netflix said in the release that since launching in Canada in September 2010, it has increased the amount of content available to Canadian members, adding shows such as TV series Pretty Little Liars, Community and Freaks & Geeks. Netflix said feature film The Hunger Games will also be available in Canada starting Dec. 31, 2012. The company said in November that it planned to make all 10 episodes of the new Arrested Development season available at the same time in 2013. In an email to The Wire Report this summer, Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos said subscribers like the all-at-once model. “We want to give our viewers what they want. If they want to watch an episode a week, they can. If they prefer to watch all eight great episodes at once, no problem,” he said. In interviews conducted in July, industry observers told The Wire Report that Netflix had to ensure widespread, global distribution of the upcoming new season of Arrested Development so as not to encourage illegitimate streaming and downloading of the program. “People who want Arrested Development will get it,” Dwayne Winseck, a professor of communications at Carleton University, said in an interview at that time, referring to the possibility of the show being available in some countries through Netflix but not in others. “They’ll use torrents and other technologies.” Embracing the Internet’s “anytime, anyplace” distribution model will reduce file sharing and illegal, on-demand streaming, Winseck said. “If you opened up the distribution channels and got used to the idea that the old world doesn’t work anymore, you’ll reduce piracy. People are just trying to get their hands on the material,” he said. Netflix must negotiate for the rights with Twentieth Century Fox to offer the new season in each jurisdiction. The company announced this year that the TV series was coming back and would be available to United States subscribers. It later announced it had negotiated the rights to distribute it in the United Kingdom. Last year, the online, over-the-top service announced it obtained the exclusive rights to help create program House of Cards, starring Kevin Spacey, to distribute on its platform. The company, whose service is available in the United States, Canada, the U.K. and Latin America, said in July that its service had “grown to over 10% of Canadian households" and that it "achieved enough scale to begin to generate contribution profits.” Netflix does not provide regional subscription numbers but said it had a million Canadian members in August 2011. news@thewirereport.ca

Netflix reaches exclusive deal for Arrested Development in Canada

News | 12/07/2012 9:47 pm EST

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