Netflix's New 'Better Call Saul' Licensing Agreement is a Really Big Deal

By Dustin Rowles | Industry | February 1, 2016 |

Update: Alas it appears that, despite Mr. Bob Odenkirk’s tweet seemingly confirming the original article from the Albuquerque Journal, the deal is only good outside the United States. We apologize.

Over the past year, we’ve all become so enamored with the the Fargo and The Lefotvers and the final season of Mad Men and Game of Thrones and Making a Murderer that we’ve almost completely forgotten about what was one of the best shows of 2015: the Breaking Bad spin-off Better Call Saul. It’s terrific, and like Fargo completely justified the television reboot of a classic movie, Saul completely justifies spinning-off a series from arguably the greatest dramatic series of all time, so long as the right people are involved.

If you don’t watch Better Call Saul, because you don’t have AMC, you will no longer have that excuse. The first season is now available on Netflix.

But get this: Starting on February 16th, new episodes of the second season will begin airing the day after they originally air on AMC. Yes, AMC will air the second season premiere on the 15th, and it will become available on Netflix on the 16th. It’s basically the deal Hulu has with Comedy Central and ABC sitcoms.

What is this madness? Why would AMC essentially hand over millions of viewers to Netflix for what is one of the network’s most popular shows?

It’s likely that this is a huge gamble that, if Netflix viewers get hooked on Saul the way they did on Breaking Bad when it aired on Netflix, that AMC will be able to convince more viewers to subscribe to AMC when season three returns because they will have turned off the Netflix spigot and SHATTERED cord cutters hopes and dreams.

Netflix streams ‘Better Call Saul’ starting Monday! ABQ Journal scoops NY Times!! https://t.co/xXUPp4KRSZ #abq via @abqjournal — Mr. Bob Odenkirk (@mrbobodenkirk) January 31, 2016

via Albuquerque Journal

Dustin is the founder and co-owner of Pajiba. You may email him here, follow him on Twitter, or listen to his weekly TV podcast, Podjiba.

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