Combining two of our favorite Newswire subjects—things that you can watch on Netflix and people giving money to Mad Men—the streaming colossus has announced that it has snapped up the syndication rights to the AMC series, paying Lionsgate somewhere between $750,000 and $900,000 per episode for the privilege of being the only place (besides AMC and DVDs, of course) where you can watch old episodes. Like the recent bid to exclusively air the David Fincher/Kevin Spacey drama House Of Cards, it’s one more indication that Netflix is out to be seen as a next-generation network, and that it is not to be trifled with, should you be thinking of doing that.
The announcement also comes a few days after Netflix signed a new deal with Twentieth Century Fox that expanded its current streaming options to include the first season of Glee, the first two seasons of Sons Of Anarchy, and David E. Kelley’s first volley in the war against feminism, Ally McBeal. Best of all, that deal includes The Wonder Years, a series that’s been all but impossible to relive lately unless you get Discovery Channel spinoff The Hub, as music rights issues have kept it from being released on DVD. Netflix has reportedly solved this by overdubbing every ‘60s hit with Grieg’s “In The Hall Of The Mountain King.” (Or maybe not; the press release doesn’t really say.)