Netflix will air the 180 episodes "Seinfeld" from 2021

Netflix Inc., a pioneer of streaming binge culture, suffered a double blow in recent months after losing "The Office" Y "Friends", two of its most important programs, removed by their respective owners to add them to their own streaming services.

"The Office" will leave the company at the end of 2020 to join the new service of NBCUniversal. "Friends" will do so in early 2020 to join the HBO Max service.

It is a battle that probably does not end the more crowded the streaming space becomes. Netflix has had an important boost with its original series, but new competitors are constantly appearing, even from Manzana Y Disney.

Even so, Netflix has an advantage with its large library of new and old programs, and now a five-year contract with Sony Pictures Television for the global streaming rights of "Seinfeld", comedy laureate with the Emmy award that aired its last chapter in 1998.

The terms of the agreement were not disclosed, but the Los Angeles Times reported that Netflix paid much more than the speculated $ 500 million that NBCUniversal paid to recover "The Office", and the reported 150 million dollars annually that Hulu's parent company, Walt Disney Co., currently pays for "Seinfeld." Those two agreements are only for streaming in the United States, while Netflix will have the rights to exhibit "Seinfeld" worldwide.

"Seinfeld is the television comedy with which all television comedy is measured," said the content chief of Netflix, Ted Sarandos, it's a statement.

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Netflix said it remains focused on producing its own programs, but cannot ignore the demand for old successes. The company spent $ 12 billion on original and non-original content last year.

The Jerry Seinfeld series "Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee" and its standup special "Jerry Before Seinfeld" has already been distributed by Netflix.