C4, Turner agree Adult Swim deal

A fourth season of Rick & Morty is on the way

Channel 4 in the UK has acquired free-to-air rights to hit US animated comedy Rick & Morty as part of an extensive deal with Turner for content from its Adult Swim programming block.

The fourth season of the show, which follows a genius scientist and his less intelligent grandson, will premiere in the UK on C4 later this year.

Meanwhile, seasons one to three of the Emmy-winning show will air on C4’s youth-skewing sister network E4 from February.

Ian Katz, C4’s director of programmes, described Rick & Morty as “one of the most anarchic, ingenious and original shows around and the breakthrough animated hit of recent years.”

The deal is part of a recently formed brand partnership between C4 and Turner that will see hundreds of hours of Adult Swim content being made available to stream for free on the broadcaster’s streaming service All 4. Adult Swim is the adult-oriented nighttime programming block of Turner’s cablenet Cartoon Network.

More than 300 episodes of Adult Swim content will be made available at launch, with hundreds more being added over the next three years. This will sit in an Adult Swim-branded ‘featured channel’ slot on All 4, alongside those from Vice and Walter Presents. An hour-long Adult Swim programming block will also begin airing on E4.