Although Netflix has fallen on hard times lately, it appears the company has a few tricks up its sleeve to stay relevant in the face of falling subscriber numbers: exclusive content. The latest deal will bring new episodes of the much-loved show Arrested Development exclusively to Netflix customers in the first half of 2013, though only in the US. Naturally, the first three seasons of Arrested Development are available on Netflix today.

The deal is a shift from Netflix's standard procedure of signing deals for existing content — notably the company recently shored up agreements with several studios for the UK and Ireland and the CW Network in the US — though Netflix will have at least one other original series coming later this year. For its part, Fox executives seemed bullish about "Netflix's bold entrance into original programming," which may mean that the studio could be open to similar deals in the future.