‘Seinfeld’ Reruns Will Start Airing on Viacom Networks in 2021

Viacom has closed a deal with Sony Pictures Television for cable TV rights to Seinfeld.

Beginning in 2021, the show will begin airing on some of Viacom’s entertainment networks, including TV Land, Comedy Central, and Paramount Network, Vulture reports. Seinfeld has been broadcasted on TBS since 2002, and still currently airs on the channel.

While the terms of the deal remain undisclosed, considering Netflix recently paid $500 million to the streaming rights to Seinfeld, it’s safe to assume that Viacom’s agreement was in the same ballpark. According to Vulture, Viacom landed the rights to the series as part of an intensely competitive bidding process. TBS reportedly didn’t try to keep the show.

Seinfeld and Viacom are a good fit since the show can run on more than one of its networks. The new deal permits Viacom to stream a handful of episodes on its various apps and websites, while not releasing enough for viewers to binge full seasons. While Viacom’s press release only names three networks for Seinfeld reruns, the entertainment conglomerate is also investing in its ad-supported streaming video platform Pluto, which could be a good fit for the series. However, it also could be that Sony’s deal with Netflix prevents Seinfeld from airing on the streaming service.

Last week, Netflix announced that it snagged streaming rights to Seinfeld from Hulu, becoming the exclusive home of the series starting in 2021. The deal also marks the first time that all 180 episodes of the series will be globally available on one service—and it’ll be in 4K.