Friday’s Netflix/NBC deal was pretty exciting for a few reasons (hi there, season 4 of Friday Night Lights. Nice to meet you, all of Battlestar Galactica) but there’s one tidbit that has gone largely ignored:
Along with the mouthwatering 35 seasons of Saturday Night Live episodes, Netflix announced they’d begin to stream new episodes as soon as the “day-after broadcast of the upcoming 2010, 2011 and 2012 seasons.”
Previously happy to release their TV offerings one full season at a time along DVD release schedules, these day-after broadcast episodes will be a real departure for the streaming giant.
Meanwhile, Hulu has been forced to edit their SNL archives from time to time as they struggle to obtain rights to certain sketches and musical performances. It remains to be seen if the Netflix deal will have these shortcomings as well.
This could be nothing more than an experiment, or a sign of things to come as Netflix moves to compete, not just with the upcoming Hulu Plus service, but with Hulu proper as well.
What do you, the viewers at home think?
