Hulu Gets Exclusive Rights to 'Fargo' and Other MGM TV Series

19 Dec, 2014 By: Erik Gruenwedel

---

Hulu Dec. 19 announced a deal with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Television for exclusive streaming rights to this year’s Golden Globe nominated and Emmy-winning miniseries “Fargo.” All episodes of the first season will be available to stream on Hulu in 2015.

The 10-episode first season, which stars Billy Bob Thornton, Martin Freeman, Allison Tolman and Colin Hanks, premiered in April on FX and is based on the same-titled 1996 Coen brothers film. The show features the same trademark humor and "Minnesota nice" that made the Oscar-winning movie popular.

Hulu is co-owned by The Walt Disney Co., Comcast and 21st Century Fox — the latter also owning FX. Fox CEO Rupert Murdoch has publicly stated a desire for Hulu to become more aggressive against rival SVOD services Netflix and Amazon Prime Instant Video.

Indeed, Hulu also licensed from MGM all episodes of History’s scripted series “Vikings.” The third season premieres Feb. 19. MGM Television is worldwide distributor outside of Ireland and Canada.

The expanded SVOD deal also includes multiyear, non-exclusive licensing rights to more than 1,500 episodes of classic MGM series including sci-fi titles such as “Stargate Universe,” “Stargate Atlantis,” “Stargate: SG-1,” and old-time series such as “Flipper,” “Green Acres” and “The Addams Family.” It also includes “Thirtysomething,” “Dead Like Me” and “The Outer Limits,” as well as family series and kids series such as “All Dogs Go to Heaven.”

“This expanded agreement allows us to become the streaming home to one of this year’s biggest and most critically acclaimed series. After announcing our landmark output deal with FX yesterday, this expanded partnership with MGM brings even more hit titles to Hulu,” Craig Erwich, SVP and head of content at Hulu, said in a statement.

Bookmark it: