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Netflix has secured exclusive UK and Irish rights to the new series of Arrested Development, one of the US video-on-demand service’s current production efforts.
Netflix will also be home to the show in the US and added the UK rights through a deal with 20th Century Fox Television Distribution.
The cult comedy first ran on Fox for three seasons between 2003 and 2006 before being axed. Netflix announced plans to revive the show as part of its recent original production drive, which saw it launch its first original series, fish-out-of-water drama Lilyhammer, earlier this year.
Though this debuted on Netflix in the US, in the UK, BBC4 picked up the broadcast and seven-day catch-up rights to the show, with Netflix securing the rights to stream it afterwards.
With the Arrested Development deal, Netflix has at the same time broadened its agreement with 20th Century Fox in the UK and Ireland, adding comedies Modern Family and The League, the latter exclusively.
Netflix is also bringing 20th Century Fox dramas Lie to Me, Sons of Anarchy and Danish thriller The Killing to the UK and Ireland.
The news comes in the same week that Netflix’s Amazon-owned rival LoveFilm also did a deal with 20th Century Fox, taking exclusive on-demand access to films such as Black Swan and X-Men: First Class during the second pay-TV window. In the UK, satcaster BSkyB has first-run pay-TV rights to films from all six of the major Hollywood studios.
The new series of Arrested Development is due to premiere in early 2013. Other new Netflix series due to launch in the US next year include David Fincher-produced thriller House of Cards, gothic murder tale Hemlock Grove and a new drama from Weeds creator Jenji Kohan called Orange is the New Black.
